Another Tomorrow
by hime7757k
Summary: It has been 3 years since Project New Life was destroyed. All seems well, until Tadashi gets a message from a friend confirming the brothers' fear:an old enemy is back for revenge. With their friends, they must track down an escaped serial killer that is somehow connected to them and their past. However, Hiro has one more problem to face:high school *SEQUEL to BH6:A New Life Begins
1. Chapter 1: Ripper

**...**

 **You've all waited for a week now, so here's a little preview of the action of the sequel ^^**

 **Just enough to make you anxious *evil laugh***

* * *

Chapter 1: Ripper

A cold breeze blew through the evening air. The moonless sky was ink black, sending a shiver down his back. He pressed his hat down lower on his head, almost as though in hope it would take him somewhere else. He hated doing night shift, and especially when a new prisoner was being transferred in.

"What'd this guy do again?" he asked his companion through chattering teeth.

The other prison guard (Joe, if he remembered correctly) rubbed his arms and shivered in the cold air. A veteran at this prison yard for almost 35 years now, he was self-proclaimed to have seen it all. From murderers to bombers, he helped accomplish many successful transfers in the past. However, this time, he snorted and snapped, "You're that newbie, right? How long you been here now?"

"10 months," he muttered, wishing desperately for a blanket and some hot chocolate.

"Well, rook," Joe grunted, "I've been here for almost 35 years now-"

"I know…" the younger guard mumbled angrily under his breath.

"And I've put away hundreds of scumbags in my time here," the old-timer continued, either not hearing his companion's dark muttering or choosing to ignore it. "And in all my time, I have never met a bastard as dark as this one."

"What's he do?" the rookie asked again, a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold going down his spine.

"The son of a bitch is a kid killer," the old man growled through his scraggly mustache. "Bastard chopped up and ripped apart 25 kids before the cops finally caught him. And that's only the remains they could actually _find_! Rumor has it that there's more, but the cops haven't found the bones yet… Also heard that he expanded his interests into older people too. No one knows his death counts, but they're pretty sure it's over a hundred."

The younger man shuddered. "Why would he kill children?"

"Don't know," the other guard shrugged. "When they were interrogating him, the sick S.O.B. only laughed and whistled some creepy nursery rhyme."

"I hope this man rots in prison for what he did," he hissed. Even the murderers and psychopaths locked up in the prison agreed on one thing: children related crimes cannot be forgiven.

"Guy got what he deserved. Life sentence, no chance of parole." The older man grunted, looking up when he saw a pair of bright headlights approaching. "That's them."

Three giant cars rolled up to the guards. As soon as the vehicles stopped moving, the car in front and the car behind immediately opened up, releasing a flood of armed officers. They all positioned themselves around the middle car, aiming their weapons at the back. The captain signaled to the driver to let whatever monster was in the back out.

"Is all this necessary?" he asked his senior.

"Kinda an overkill," the older guard agreed, "but when they finally cornered him, he took down a whole squad of officers with just a trashcan lid. Can't be too careful, I suppose."

"Do you have the papers?" the driver asked, stepping out of the vehicle.

"Right here, sir," he answered, pulling out all the necessary documents for the transfer.

The man grunted, signed the papers, and pulled out a bunch of keys. Walking around to the back, he shot a warning glance behind his shoulder and said, "Gotta be careful with this one… he could kill you before you know what happened."

"Noted," he replied tersely. He slowly reached for his hidden sidearm, ready to use it if necessary.

All the officers cocked their guns as the driver carefully unlocked the doors. The two guards, rookie and senior, both tensed, unsure of what to expect.

The trunk was pitch black. At first, there was silence. Then, out of the gloom, came an eerie whistling. The song was all too familiar, a beloved children's favorite. However, whatever was inside the trunk drew the notes out, making them longer, and a million times creepier.

"Ahh, officer," a sleazy voice hissed after the melody ended. "I was beginning to wonder why we weren't moving… Is something wrong?"

"Shows over, scumbag," the driver snorted. "Say hello to your new home, cuz you're not moving out for a _long_ time."

"Hmm, pity," the voice tsked. "I was beginning to like that last one."

A sudden beam of light from a flashlight lit up the darkness. He heard a small gasp from behind him as all laid eyes on the carnage in the back of the truck. The three guards assigned to watch the man all had their necks snapped. Their heads hanged limply off their shoulders. One poor guy had his head stuck at a permanent 180˚.

"You were taking so long I got bored," the voice sighed. With the ray of light, he could finally see the face of said voice. He was expecting some big and old muscle man picking his teeth with a piece of bone, but what he saw was almost the exact opposite.

This man looked calm, even though three freshly dead bodies surrounded him. He looked young, not a day over thirty. The light only lit up his surroundings; his face was still covered in shadows. The guard could see the faint glow of bandages that wrapped around his right eye. A grim smirk was plastered across his face when he heard the gasps of horror at his accomplishment.

"Hurry up and get him inside!" the driver sputtered. "The sooner he's locked up, the better!"

"Oh, I suppose I should get up now," the man in the car sighed. He stood up slowly, shaking his chained arms and legs in disgust. "Do loosen these chains for me please, dear driver, they're beginning to chafe my skin."

"You'll get those removed the day you die, Ripper," the driver spat back, aggressively yanking the man out of the car. The criminal merely chuckled and raised his hands to his chest in mock defeat.

"This is where I cut in," the young "guard" finally sighed, pulling out his gun. To the surprise of all the officers, he pulled out a second weapon and shot all the officers present. The driver and his passenger weren't spared either. Before anyone knew what was happening, and before anyone could call for help, they were lying dead in a pool of their own blood. His "senior" slid down the side of the truck, a look of terror and betrayal in his eyes. Blood was pooling out of a bullet hole in his neck He could feel his life flowing out of his wound, and he knew he only had a few seconds left. His "junior" chuckled darkly and raised his weapon and aimed it at the old man's forehead. One silenced gunshot later and the night was silent again.

"Well," the prisoner sighed as he stared at the new blood stains that decorated his orange jumpsuit, "that was rather grand, wasn't it?"

"Don't mention it," he muttered, throwing his hat off in disgust. He picked up the keys in the dead driver's hands and promptly unlocked the cuffs around the ex-convicts arms and legs.

"Thank you, I supposed," the man muttered ungraciously, rubbing his wrists to get the blood flowing to his hands again. "And who do I owe the favor?"

"A… concerned other party," he offered. He wiped his hands clean of blood on his security jacket, then took it off in disgust. The owner of the jacket would be found in the morning, dead and stuffed in his own locker. Recently transferred and never given the chance to be recognized. An easy lie to an old-timer and no one suspected a thing.

"And why would this 'concerned' party be concerned?"

"Let's just say, you and I have a common enemy, Mr. Ripper."

"Hmm… and that would be…"

"Didn't you ever wonder who was responsible for locking you up in the middle of your glory days," he asked impatiently.

"The cops only said it was some anonymous source," Ripper muttered angrily.

"Well, I know who that source is," he continued.

Ripper squinted at him suspiciously. "Who is it?"

"The Hamada's," he answered. "Tadashi Hamada, to be exact. Him and his little brother."

"Wait till I get my hands on them," Ripper snarled. "I'll rip them apart while their still alive, tear them to pieces, limb by limb! I'll-"

"Yes, yes, that's good and all," he sighed impatiently, "But, please, work with me here. If you help me, I'll help you get revenge on the two. How about it?"

"And what's in it for me?" Ripper hissed.

"You get to kill all the kids you want while I'm preparing… including the little Hamada."

"Hmm…" the felon rubbed his chin in thought. "Very well," he finally said reluctantly. "Contact me when you're done with your 'planning'."

"Keep the cops busy while I'm working," he snapped. "Make sure they don't suspect me for anything." He pulled a phone out of his pocket and tossed it to the killer. "Keep in contact."

"Right," Ripper snorted as he pocketed the phone. "Well," he grabbed the keys and climbed into the farthest truck. "It's been nice meeting you Mr. Concerned Party, but I really must be going. So many children, so little time…"

"Don't forget our agreement," he warned.

"Of course not," Ripper laughed. As he started the car, he snickered and said, "That's a pretty nasty scar you got there, 'friend'."

Koetsu grimaced and lightly brushed his hand across his damaged skin. "This'll be gone soon… 'friend'…"

* * *

 **More follows and favorites=faster updates ;)**

 **Review! Follow! Spread the word! I'm back baby!**


	2. Chapter 2: Time

Chapter 2: Time

"Come on, Honey! If you can make giant metal balls disappear into pink powder, then an invisible sandwich should be nothing!"

"For the last time, Freddie," Honey Lemon sighed, "an invisible sandwich isn't real science. I can't help you with that."

"Hey, Fred, guess what," Gogo said sarcastically, "if you ask her in another year, her answer will still be the same."

"What about-"

"Don't you dare ask for that shrink ray again, cuz like I said last time, it's _not possible."_ Wasabi said sharply, throwing an elbow out and hitting his mascot suit-wearing friend.

"Don't worry," Fred snorted as he rubbed his newest sore spot. "One of these days, it'll happen…"

"I wouldn't keep your hopes up on that, Fred," Tadashi laughed as the group turned the corner. He could see his house and he was dying to jump through the door and just curl up and sleep on the floor. Not only had the upgrades he was trying to add to Baymax's system not cooperating with him, but he also had to rewrite most of his coding when the new ones he added ended up corroding his data. Luckily, he was able to save Baymax's "personality", but by the end of the day, the college senior had gotten almost no work done.

"So, dinner tonight? At the pizza place?" Gogo asked as she blew a bubble.

"Sure," Tadashi yawned. He smiled dreamily as the image of Italian food and a warm bed to sleep in danced through his head. It felt like a gift from above that there was a long weekend coming up, meaning more sleep and more catching up. "Let's go tell Hiro where we're going tonight. Kid's gonna freak."

Just as the friends walked up the steps, the door flew open. An angry, older woman fumed out, glasses askew and papers stuck to her clothes. As soon as she saw Tadashi, she rummaged through her purse and shoved an envelope full of money into his hands. "Take it!" she screamed. "I'll give it all back to you if I don't have to keep working with that… that little devil!" With that, she stormed down the street, leaving a trail of dark screeches and papers behind her.

While his friends were baffled, Tadashi just sighed. "Can we reschedule that pizza?" he asked wearily.

Honey Lemon looked at him sympathetically. She placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and smiled gently. "Call us when you're ready, okay?"

Nodding appreciatively, he entered his home with a heavy heart and a long sigh.

The house itself was relatively clean. A trail of papers that lead to the door showed Tadashi the route the private tutor had took to leave the house. Sighing again, he followed the trail to the kitchen, unsure of what to expect.

Mochi was curled up on top of a stack of papers. He purred contently, despite the chaos that surrounded him.

The floor was covered with papers. Some even floated lazily through the air. Tadashi grabbed one just as it flew near his face. Reading the contents, he groaned when he realized what it was.

Knowing exactly where to find the troublemaker that made this mess, he quietly crept up the stairs, towards his room. He left his bag and Baymax's case on the floor, then quietly pushed the door open.

He almost didn't notice where Hiro was. The room looked normal enough, his side neat and orderly while Hiro's side was beyond saving. Said little brother was sitting in the chair in front of the computer, legs crossed as he typed away on some coding (probably for another bot). Tadashi didn't notice him until he saw the messy hair that stuck up from behind the chair. Tiptoeing over to the rolling chair, he positioned himself for the ultimate sneak attack.

He grinned when he realized Hiro didn't notice his entry (most likely too absorbed in his coding), and promptly spun the chair around and grabbed his little brother's ankles. He heard a surprised "what the-" as he threw his brother behind his shoulders, leaving him dangling upside down, the only thing holding him up being Tadashi's grip on his ankles. For extra measures, the older Hamada bounced around the room, happily laughing at every squawk of protest that came from behind him.

"Tadashi? What the heck, bro!" Hiro yelled furiously as he dangled limply behind his brother's back. The nine (almost ten)-year-old had learned from past mistakes that there was no fighting his brother's iron grip.

"Nice to see you too, little brother," Tadashi laughed back, giving Hiro an extra shake.

"Tadashi, let go!" Hiro squeaked, pounding on his brother's back (or at least, what he could reach).

"Anything you say," was his reply as he walked over to the bed. Turning around, Tadashi let go of his prisoner, letting him fall to the bed. One undignified grunt and a poorly aimed smack later, Hiro was sitting cross legged on his blankets, glaring daggers at his older brother.

"There are easier ways of saying you're home, you know," Hiro sighed, absentmindedly smoothing down his wrinkly blankets.

"I know," Tadashi sniggered, "but it's so much more fun this way."

Hiro rolled his eyes. "Of all the brothers I could get, I get the weird nerdy one," he muttered.

"Anyways," the older Hamada laughed again. He reached down and ruffled his little brother's always-messy hair, a large grin plastered across his face. "I'm home little bro."

Hiro couldn't fight the smile that appeared on his own face. He swatted at his brothers hand and replied, "Welcome home, big bro."

* * *

"So," Tadashi started, raising an eyebrow. "About the kitchen…"

"I'll clean it later," Hiro replied hurriedly. Tadashi was sprawled out on his own bed and Hiro had returned to his coding. After trying to decide how to start the conversation that both brothers knew would not end well, Tadashi finally decided "what the heck" and went with the most awkward one.

"That's the 37th home tutor you've driven away, Hiro," Tadashi sighed. " _This year_!"

Hiro shrugged. "They don't like me. I don't like them. It's the best of both world if they leave."

"And printing out all the information from their private lives is the way to do it," Tadashi said sarcastically, holding up the previous tutor's electricity bill. "You don't have to show them you're smart by hacking into their computers, you know."

Hiro spun around, giving his brother a wide-eyed stare. The stare immediately turned devious as a smirk formed on the kids face and one eyebrow raised. "But I _didn't_ hack it," Hiro chuckled evilly.

"Using your technopathy counts as hacking," Tadashi stated bluntly.

"Oh, _come on_ , Tadashi," Hiro whined. "This one was so _mean_! She never showed up on time and she would only teach me things I already _know_!"

"Don't forget that, in the books, you're only at ninth grade level right now, remember genius?" Tadashi sighed wearily.

After their giant adventure three years ago, their wealthy (at the time rival) acquaintance, Yoichibei Sayaki, had promised to erase all records that showed what had happened. Medical forms, property damage, everything that marked any record of the damages that woman had made were wiped off the face of the Earth. Unfortunately, that included Hiro's certificates that showed he passed eighth and ninth grade by his home tutors. Not only did he have to suffer through eighth and ninth grade again (because the local law offices were just _too_ _stubborn to listen_ ), but he also had to endure the private tutors teaching him all the same material as before. The kid felt so bored every day that he practically made it a living to piss off and drive away home tutors. His record was fifteen in a week.

"I know, I know…" Hiro grumbled. He turned his kicked puppy look on to full blast as he looked over to his college-leveled brother. "Why can't I just go to college with you guys?"

"Hiro, we've been through this before," Tadashi groaned, trying to look away. Whenever Hiro did that look, Tadashi always felt guilty, even when he didn't do anything wrong. "You're too young! And besides, you don't even have your high school degree yet, and-"

"Then jump me up to twelfth grade material!" Hiro yelled, jumping out of his chair. "Let me graduate already! Is it too much to ask for you to just let me finish all this easy stuff?"

"Well," Tadashi tried weakly, "it's not that simple, little bro, you see-"

"I know what it is," Hiro said sharply, eyes blazing with fury. "You don't want me to graduate. Because you don't think I'm ready for the 'real world'."

"Well, yes…" Tadashi replied lamely, "Yes, that's one reason, I suppose-"

"For the last time, Tadashi," Hiro snapped. The lights in the room began to flare. Tadashi quickly shot Hiro a warning glance, which the child pointedly ignored. He balled his hands into fist and gritted his teeth, snarling, "Stop," each bulb burned brightly at its max capacity, "Babying," Tadashi could almost feel the room begin to heat up, " _Me_!" At his last word, the lights in the room all burst, sending shards of glass flying everywhere. The streetlights outside also blew out, most likely along with the lights in every house within a fifty-foot radius. Tadashi managed to dive aside and avoided any major injury from flying glass, and looked up wearily to his angry little brother.

The kid still looked furious. However, the anger was leaving his eyes as dizziness started to settle. Hiro wobbled on his feet, holding his head as he leaned to the side precariously. "Wha-" he groaned as his face paled.

"Whoa, easy there, buddy," Tadashi jumped out of his hiding place, carefully avoiding the glass on the floor. He caught Hiro just as his little brother started to fall, saving him from a face plant into shards of glass. By some miracle, Hiro wasn't hit by any glass shrapnel either.

Hiro gazed up dizzily, eyes glossy as he stared past Tadashi's head. "Did I graduate," he slurred, then covered his mouth as the nausea set in.

Tadashi smiled down grimly as he helped his brother get to a trash bag. "Not yet, buddy," Tadashi sighed, patting his brother's back as the kid emptied his stomach of everything he ate that day. "Not yet…"

* * *

"What happened," Hiro groaned, looking around the room blearily. "Why are all the lights out?"

"Long story," Tadashi sighed, giving his brother a weak half smile. "How much do you remember?"

"Uhh… we were talking about school?" Hiro made his statement a question and looked at Tadashi unsurely. "Then I got mad… and I'm not sure about after that."

"That's pretty much what happened," Tadashi said as he lit a candle. He also started to rummage through their drawers, hoping to find a flashlight. "And now the entire street has a freak power outage."

"Ugh, my head is killing me," the child groaned, massaging his temples with his fingers. "What'd I get mad at?"

"We'll talk about it later," Tadashi sighed. "In the mean time…" He gave his brother a stern glare and said, "You really have to watch your emotions there, buddy. It's already bad enough that it affects other people. _And_ it drains you this much afterwards…"

"Sorry," Hiro mumbled. "I'll be more careful next time."

Tadashi sighed (again) and gave his brother a small smile. "And no more hacking into other people's computers."

"Yes, sir," Hiro grumbled mockingly. "Should I do the dishes and clean the rooms for you too?"

"Hmm," Tadashi pretended to give some thought to his brother's request. "That's not a bad idea, actually…" He laughed when his brother sat up disbelievingly. "Anyways," he chuckled, "You hungry? Wanna order in?"

"My stomach still isn't feeling that great…" Hiro mumbled, holding his stomach and covering his mouth. "Maybe tomorrow?" he offered weakly.

"Sure," the older Hamada grinned and said, "It's a long weekend anyways."

Hiro's face lit up. "That's right!" he exclaimed happily. "We're still going to that tech convention, right?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Tadashi replied. "I'll call the private tutoring company tomorrow and ask them for another tutor tomorrow. Now get some rest, okay?"

"Sure," the younger Hamada yawned and grinned sleepily. "G'night, Dashi."

"Good night, knucklehead," Tadashi smiled and ruffled Hiro's hair affectionately.

Unable to find a flashlight, he grabbed the second best thing: his phone. He quietly closed the door and walked back downstairs, letting out a deep breath when he looked at the forgotten mess in the kitchen. Mochi had relocated to a comfier spot, leaving the papers labeled with the poor woman's bank records, list of purchases, emails, and basically her whole life strewn across the table and floors. Tadashi groaned at the thought of waking up to clean this mess, but it had to be done one way or another. Trudging past the paper warzone, he went to the counter and picked up the mail he had dropped there a few days before. The very first letter screamed bad news.

It was from the private tutoring company. The fifth company Tadashi had to switch to since Hiro had his records erased. He didn't have to open it to know what it said. _It's the same story_ , he sighed inwardly. _Sorry, Mr. Hamada, we have no more tutors available to work with you, we regret to inform you this, blah blah blah…_ Tadashi snorted in irritation. Excuses to say that there were no more teachers willing to put up with his brother.

Tadashi stretched his arms above his head, a wide yawn breaking across his features. He tiredly looked at the clock and groaned. Almost two in the morning. Well, it had taken him a considerable amount of time making sure Hiro was feeling better, and to clean up all the glass shards without his brother noticing. To say he was tired was an understatement. After the long day he had, and the argument that caused a street blackout, Tadashi felt ready to fall into a coma for at least a year.

Wearily dragging his feet up the stairs, he gave the messy kitchen one last glance. Even though it had been a while, and Hiro had learned to keep his powers mostly in control, Tadashi was still worried about the effects that the leftover abilities of that chip could do to his little brother. Sure, it was cool and all, but he still remembered the day they came back from the hospital. Hiro threw a huge fit and destroyed every electrical appliance in the house, which promptly ended up with him getting another high fever and Tadashi having to replace every item in the house. From what he could tell, Hiro had thrown the tantrum because the "machines wouldn't shut up," as the child had so gracefully stated.

Sinking into his soft mattress, Tadashi let out a content breath. He turned to face his sleeping brother, a million thoughts swarming through his head. He knew the consequences that would come if anyone found out about Hiro's "talent." Yoichibei had warned him that there were many greedy business men out there that would do anything to get their hands on someone with abilities like Hiro (Tadashi had glared at the large man who had resorted to kidnapping and killing, yet he was talking like he had nothing to do with anything.)

 _This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when you said things were gonna be complicated, Aunt Cass_ , Tadashi sighed, for what felt like the fiftieth time that night. _I was expecting killer robots, or gang fights… not weird sci-fiey stuff that sounds like it came out of one of Fred's comic books._ Those things would be easier to deal with than this.

Robots could be taken apart.

Gangs could be arrested and jailed for life.

But this? No. There was no escape from this.

Because the only way to get away from this was to leave Hiro. And that was one thing Tadashi was _not_ willing to do.

"Well," Tadashi exhaled out loud, "I'm still sticking by my promise. I'm staying by Hiro. Even through all this crazy stuff. Cuz I promised…" Trailing off, he nodded satisfactorily to himself. _Forever_ , he mused silently, before stretching out and gently blowing out the candle.

* * *

 **Big news! :D**

 **So, I have a friend who read A New Life and invited me onto AO3 (Archive of Our Own ^^), and I posted the first chapter of A New Life on there for all those people to check out~ if you use AO3 as well, help me spread the fire of the BH6 fandom :]**

 **Thank you for all the comments! Hope any confusion is cleared up from this chap ^^" Continue following and reviewing please!~**


	3. Chapter 3: Dream

Chapter 3: Dream

"Mr. Hamada, correct?"

"That's correct, sir," Tadashi replied politely, stifling a yawn. He didn't end up falling asleep until half past three, then had to drag his tired body out of bed to meet up with another private tutoring company at eight. Luckily, Hiro was still asleep, and from the amount of energy the child had used the night before, Tadashi has pretty sure he would be out till the afternoon.

"Well," the head of the tutoring company sighed, "I don't know what to say, Mr. Hamada." He skimmed through the filed before him and remarked, "Your brother is certainly very talented… way above ninth grade material."

"Yes, he is," Tadashi couldn't hide the hint of pride leaking into his voice.

"He is very smart," the man continued carefully, "But, unfortunately, we have no more tutors that are willing to work with him."

Tadashi's heart sank. "Please," he begged, "there has to be at least _one_ person that will do it."

"Unfortunately, no," the head sighed. "Your brother's made quite a name for himself in the private tutoring world," he chuckled. "I don't know what's worse, the stories they tell, or the complaints I receive about him."

"And I'm really sorry about that," Tadashi sighed, "but isn't there anyone in this company that _hasn't_ had him as a student yet?"

"His stories have spread," the head shrugged. "Now even tutors that don't work for companies are scared."

"What can I do," Tadashi groaned. "I can't just leave him cooped up at home all day… he wants to learn!" He drew a hand through his hair and rubbed his neck, slumping his shoulders in disappointment.

The man hesitated, then opened a drawer of his desk. "There _is_ one thing you can do…"

* * *

"I'm home," Tadashi called tiredly as he locked the door carefully behind him. "Hiro? You up yet, buddy?"

"Hello, Tadashi," a kind, robotic voice that was definitely not Hiro's replied.

Looking up in surprise, Tadashi almost tripped when he saw his college robotics project greet him at the door. "Baymax?" he gasped. "What are you doing out of your case?" Fear coursed through him as he tried to push his way past the inflated robot. "Is Hiro okay? What happened?"

"Your cortisol and epinephrine levels have elevated," the robot replied, tilting his head to the side. "This indicates that you are stressed. Or: worried."

"Heck yeah, I'm worried," Tadashi panicked as he still continued trying to get past the large robot. "How did you get activated?"

"I was alerted this morning at approximately 8:37 am by a sound of distress," Baymax reported. "It appeared Hiro had fallen out of bed. I placed him back and he fell asleep without deactivating me."

"Oh, thank god," Tadashi breathed, collapsing at the foot of the stairs. "And here I thought the knucklehead somehow managed to hurt himself in the hour I was gone," Tadashi laughed tiredly.

Baymax blinked owlishly. "I cannot deactivate until you say you are satisfied with your care."

"I'm satisfied with my care," Tadashi chuckled. The robot blinked again, then waddled up the stairs to his case. Tadashi laughed one more time before following him back to the room.

Hiro was still asleep. The blankets were tangled around him, and the child was hugging his pillow like a teddy bear. A strand of his messy hair hung over his face, fluttering with each breath.

Tadashi gave a halfhearted smile and flopped onto his bed. Closing his eyes to take a short nap, he was dreading telling Hiro of the "other option" the private tutoring company had given him.

* * *

Tadashi heard a small buzz as he snapped blearily out of his sleep. Groaning as he rolled over, he fumbled around for his bag, hissing in frustration when he couldn't feel it. Annoyed, he opened one eye and grabbed the bag at the foot of his bed angrily. "Hello?" he answered groggily when he finally found his phone.

"Hey, Tadashi," Wasabi's voice greeted him. "Did I wake you?"

"No, no," Tadashi yawned, "I needed to wake up soon anyways." He sat up and reached an arm above his head to stretch. "So what can I do for you?"

"Do you mind coming over to Fred's place with Hiro?" his friend asked nervously. "Like, now?"

"I don't see why not. What's the occasion?"

"You'll see when you get here," Wasabi replied grimly.

Saying a quick farewell, Tadashi stood and stretched out his back. Feeling the satisfying crack down his spine, he sighed contently. Walking around the paper curtain, he snorted in amusement when he saw the blankets entangled around his brother's body. Somehow, Hiro had shifted in his sleep, a foot dangling off the bed and head on the opposite side.

Chuckling softly, he crouched down by the slumbering child and poked his cheek lightly. Hiro mumbled and swatted at Tadashi's hand, then rolled over and snuggled into the blankets. Rolling his eyes, Tadashi jabbed Hiro's back. He felt his brother jolt and sit up with a yelp, turning and glaring at him. "What was that for?" Hiro demanded, rubbing his side angrily.

"Rise and shine, little bro," Tadashi chortled. "Have a nice sleep?"

"For the most part," Hiro yawned. "I think I fell out of bed?"

"Yup, you did," Tadashi confirmed, pulling up the blankets that had fallen off the bed. "Baymax helped you back up." Grabbing a shirt from Hiro's drawers, he tossed it at his half asleep brother and said, "Get dressed. We're going to Fred's."

"Why?" Hiro muttered, struggling to find the opening of the shirt he was just given.

Tadashi shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. But it sounds urgent… wonder what's up…?"

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Tadashi parked his moped behind Wasabi's familiar van by Fred's mansion. Hiro clambered off, not bothering to hide yet another huge yawn. "Stay awake, knucklehead," Tadashi snorted, holding on to Hiro's shoulders to steer him to the door. "You can take a nap when we find out what's wrong."

"M'not sleepy," Hiro mumbled unconvincingly, already nodding off despite walking towards the luxurious front porch. Tadashi rolled his eyes and knocked loudly on the door. Barely a second passed when it opened.

Heathcliff opened the door and bowed his head. "Hello, Mr. Hamada. Fredrick has been expecting you."

"Good morning, Heathcliff," Tadashi replied good-naturedly. "How're things?"

"I am well, thank you for your concern," the butler replied blankly. "This way."

Tadashi steered Hiro past the door when the butler moved to the side. Heathcliff led them down several large halls, passing many magnificent paintings. No matter how many times he visits, Tadashi felt he would never get used to the grandness of Fred's mansion, especially considering the fact that said friend "recycles" his underwear.

Heathcliff knocked on Fred's door and called out, "Master Fredrick, your friend is here."

The door flew open, narrowly missing Heathcliff's face. The man was probably used to it now, considering that he didn't even blink. Fred grinned and slung an arm around Tadashi's neck. "Tadashi, my man! Glad you could make it!"

"Well, Wasabi did say it was kinda urgent," Tadashi chuckled, walking in to his friend's cluttered room. "So what's the problem?"

"The problem," a familiar female voice that was definitely _not_ Wasabi replied, "is that you have an old friend back in town."

Tadashi smiled grimly at the speaker. "It's been a while, Chiyeki."

"Likewise," the female replied bluntly. "Now, hurry up and get inside. These cookies Heathcliff made are delicious."

* * *

"It's nice to see you're still the same," Tadashi sighed, stirring absentmindedly at his cup of tea.

Tomoe's sister had grown her hair down to the middle of her back. A few blue streaks decorated the sides of her otherwise jet-black hair. She still wore rather dark clothing, but there were a few splotches of color on her dark gray sweater.

"She showed up at my place around 11 last night," Gogo said as she munched on a cookie. "Scared the living daylight out of my mom."

"And again, I'm sorry about that," Chiyeki sighed. "But it was important, and I didn't know where else to go." While Chiyeki had been recovering from her gunshot wound, she had stayed at Gogo's apartment that she shared with her middle-aged mother. It was only for a few days, until she could find a place of her own, but Gogo's mother had made it very clear that she could come over whenever she liked.

"Where's Honey?" Tadashi asked, noticing that his tall blonde friend was nowhere to be seen.

"She's babysitting for her neighbor," Gogo replied. "Something about them leaving town for a week or so? She's just watching them until their aunt gets off of work."

"We called her to ask her to come over, too," Wasabi explained. "Those kids sound like a handful, you could hear them screaming in the back."

"So what is it that you need to tell us, Chiyeki?" Tadashi asked politely. Hiro had hogged up Fred's bed and was softly snoring in deep slumber.

"I still keep in touch with some of my sister's old sources," Chiyeki started nervously. "And Yoichibei-san hasn't exactly cut all ties with me. However," she paused, looking at the group of friends fearfully. "One of my sources and some of his have confirmed that Koetsu is back."

"What does he want?" Tadashi fumed. "I thought we cleared up this whole thing three years ago!"

"Chiyeki," Gogo suddenly said quietly. "You need to tell them."

"Tell who what?" Wasabi asked. "What's going on?"

"There's an academy," Chiyeki began, "that specialized in training children into being assassin. Yoichibei and my sister were their greatest patrons, and…" she looked down guiltily, "I was sent there for a few years when I was younger."

Everyone (that was awake) gasped. "What was it like?" Wasabi asked cautiously.

Chiyeki shuddered. "It was horrible. Everyday, it was train, train, train… the final exam was to kill everyone in your class. I escaped after spending three years in that hellhole… But that's not the issue." She took a deep breath and said, "That school isn't just training for killers. They also funded research for experiments that are usually kept secret by big business owners."

"How is that our problem?" Tadashi asked, sipping carefully at his still steaming cup. "Last I checked, Yoichibei was done with revenge and I doubt Koetsu would have any need for that stuff."

"It's our problem," Chiyeki replied, slightly annoyed, "because several of the head scientists went missing a few years ago. I've tried tracking them down, but they literally disappeared off the map." She sighed. "Koetsu's behind this, I'm sure of it."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Tadashi started carefully. "For all we know, they could just be going into hiding."

"All I'm saying," the woman replied stubbornly, "is to keep an eye out for possible danger. Besides, there's all that news going around about that escaped prisoner…"

"Oh, right," he sighed. Grabbing a remote, he turned on Fred's flat screen TV. They managed to catch the closing segment of the morning news.

"Officials have yet to find the escaped convict," the reporter stated. "There is heavy consideration of a city-wide curfew, but until we get more information, it is highly recommended that citizens stay home and lock all entry ways. Children should not be out alone, and…"

"He escaped a few months ago, right?" Fred asked. "Maybe he left San Fransokyo and went to some other big city."

"Doubt it," Gogo said monotonously. "He already established that SF was his quote-in-quote 'hunting grounds' when he was still active. Why would he suddenly change now?"

"Well, you never know," Wasabi murmured nervously. "It's been what… ten years now since he got caught?" The large man sighed. "They were only transferring him from some other city when he escaped."

"Who knows," Tadashi shrugged. "For now, we're just gonna have to be extra careful. No more midnight strolls, right?"

"Never took you for a late-night hike type of guy,"Gogo said sarcastically.

Tadashi grinned back. "I'm not. But Wasabi is."

"Hey, they're very relaxing!" the man said agitatedly, trying to defend himself.

"Whoa, you go for walks?" Fred asked excitedly. "Dude, the last time I went for a legit hike was when my parents dragged me with them to the Alps."

The dark conversation quickly turned into laughter and witty banter. No one noticed Hiro twitch slightly as he slept.

* * *

Flames erupted all around him, engulfing him in their burning embrace. Ropes wrapped themselves securely around his body, making sure he couldn't escape. Suddenly, a flaming dragon emerged from the fire, jaws opened wide to swallow him whole.

Hiro sighed and said, "That's enough, Peniel."

The dream disappeared almost immediately. The fire died down and the ropes vanished. Everything was replaced by an endless black space. The dragon snickered and in a small cartoonish _pop_ , and a poof of smoke, turned into a person.

"A dragon? Seriously?" Hiro said judgingly, arching a brow.

"Hey, it's your brain," the "person" defended as she laughed. "You used to be terrified of them, remember?"

"Yeah, when I was like, 2," Hiro snorted.

The little girl in front of him deflated. "You're no fun," she pouted, crossing her arms over her white sundress.

"After seeing this stuff every night, you'd be surprised how fast I got used to it," Hiro replied dryly, floating over to the girl.

 _She_ appeared a few weeks after the whole New Life fiasco. Hiro had been in bed, struck down by yet _another_ fever. He fell asleep, only to wake up to a dream.

It was a pure white, endless space. It stretched on forever and he was surprised to see himself floating. As he looked down, he felt his stomach drop when he realized there was no floor.

Feeling a panic attack rising, he looked around frantically, desperate to wake up.

That's when _she_ appeared.

A little girl in a white dress.

Smiling at him.

Then he screamed and woke up.

Arms flailing as he blinked back to consciousness, it took Tadashi a near hour to get him to calm down. He fell back asleep almost immediately after, only to return to the same space with the same girl in front of him.

"What do you want," he asked her, voice trembling.

She tipped her head to the side. "Why are you scared?" she asked innocently.

"Because you tried to strangle me a few months ago!" he yelled back accusingly. His voice echoed through the empty space.

She blinked. "Ohh," she murmured in realization. "Is that where this form came from?" A wicked smile crept up her face. "Then what about this one?" she giggled.

There was a small pop and a poof of smoke. Hiro shielded his eyes, but when he opened them he felt sick.

Aunt Cass was standing in front of him, with the same smirk on her face as the little girl had.

He didn't hear himself scream, but the echoes that bounced through the whiteness told him otherwise. He stumbled back, floating through the air as he frantically moved to get away from her. Spinning around, he stopped cold when "Aunt Cass" materialized right in front of him.

"Or this one?" she cackled, changing yet again. This time, the transition was more like a shimmer, a mirage rather than some cheap magic trick.

Hiro whimpered as Tadashi smiled nastily at him. "How's this one?" his brother giggled, still with the girl's voice.

"Please stop," Hiro whispered. "Why are you doing this?"

"Tadashi's" face fell. He changed back into the little girl, her face equally as crestfallen as his older brother's had been. "I'm sorry," she murmured, before everything turned black and he woke up yet again.

The real Tadashi was gently shaking him awake, smiling kindly and shaking a small bottle of pills. Medicine time.

Tears emerged in his eyes. He latched on to Tadashi's waist and cried, happy to see his actual older brother. To this day, Tadashi had no idea why Hiro had been so emotional over taking medicine.

A few days later, Hiro fell asleep and woke up again, this time in a black space, facing the girl he had seen before. She was crying silently into her hands. "I just wanted to be your friend," she sobbed quietly, not turning around to face him.

Hiro hesitated, then sighed. After his fever broke, he thought about his weird "dream." She didn't seem like she wanted to hurt him, and she looked like she had no idea what she was doing was hurting him. He floated over to her and said, "Hi, I'm Hiro" and stuck his hand out politely.

She sniffed and looked up slowly. Tucking back a few strands of her long black hair, she smiled and said, "My mommy called me Peniel."

Which leads them back to where they are now.

Three years later and Hiro still didn't understand her version of "fun."

"Why do you insist on scaring me every time I fall asleep?" he sighed.

She shrugged. "What else am I supposed to do, it's fun."

"Uh huh," he snorted. "You could help me keep out all the shouting, you know."

"Why?" she asked, tipping her head to the side. "You should listen to what they say."

"I don't appreciate being yelled at by a toaster every morning, thanks," he said humorlessly. "And I suppose I have you to thank for my major freak out last night."

"That was all you," she shrugged. "You're learning too fast."

"What does that mean," Hiro sighed. "I mean, sure you've helped me learn how to control my 'power', but most of the time it's you, isn't it?"

"It was," she replied bitterly. "Now, it's you. Your brain can control it now."

"That's not what I want," he said sharply. "It was cool for a bit, but not anymore. I want to be normal, not some freak that can control technology.

"Well, what can I tell you?" she smirked. "It's not my fault you have such a giant brain."

"Not. Funny," he growled. He winced when he felt his control slip, allowing in at least ten different voices, and all complaining about different things. Apparently, Fred's lamp didn't like the bulb the comic book geek was using, and his TV was sobbing over some drama on channel 57.

"Watch it, Einstein," she chuckled grimly. "I just said you had control over it. Don't lose it now."

"Thanks for the tip," Hiro scoffed. A light shined through the darkness, accompanied by someone calling his name. He sighed and stood up. "That's my cue."

"See you later," she said half-heartedly. Smiling nonchalantly, she whispered as Hiro disappeared, "Good morning."

* * *

"Hey, little bro, time to wake up," Tadashi said quietly, shaking Hiro's shoulder lightly.

Hiro blinked awake, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He yawned and murmured blearily, "Did I miss anything?"

Tadashi snorted. "Yeah, just the whole meeting, no biggie" he laughed. "Chiyeki left a few minutes ago. We're gonna go get some breakfast with Fred, Gogo and Wasabi."

Hiro smiled his trademark gap toothed smile. "The place with the blueberry pancakes?"

"With extra whip cream," Tadashi recited humorously as he flicked Hiro's nose.

"Awesome!" Hiro cried, scrambling out of bed. He pushed his dream quickly to the back of his mind. Like he always did every morning.

* * *

 **Hehe sorry for no updates ^^ kinda had no wifi for a bit...**

 **It might just be me, but I feel like the BH6 fandom ain't doing so well anymore... O-o**

 **But w/e right? WE WILL KEEP CHARGING ON MWAHAHAHAHA**

 **Yeah, I'm pretty tired tbh... enjoy this update...**


	4. Chapter 4: Easy

Chapter 4: Easy

"Hey, bud," Tadashi said cheerfully one morning, "Wanna come to SFIT with me for the day?"

Hiro narrowed his eyes at Tadashi's suspiciously. As much as he loved going to his brother's school, he knew something was up. After he started getting private lessons, Tadashi made sure to keep Hiro _away_ from his college, not wanting him to get distracted.

Speaking of which…

"What about classes?" Hiro asked, raising an eyebrow doubtfully. Tadashi was the attendance king. He was never late or absent for _anything_.

"Well, I decided," his brother laughed, rubbing his neck nervously (a habit Hiro had learned to mean "trying to hide something"), "why not give you a day off, ya know? Besides, you haven't been to the lab in _forever_."

"Last time I went, I got sick," Hiro replied bluntly. "And got us kicked out of the on campus café." Shortly after New Life, Tadashi took Hiro, who was still having issues controlling his new abilities, back with him to school. Their first mistake was entering the lab. The voices were so overwhelming from all the different tech that Hiro passed out as soon as he walked into the building. The café… now that's a whole different story.

"It's been three years, Hiro I'm sure you can handle it now," Tadashi urged. "Besides, I'm pretty sure the manager's past the whole 'setting fire to the walls' incident now. At least I hope he is…"

"Fine," Hiro smirked, deciding to humor his older brother. "I'll go with you to Nerd Kingdom. But I expect gummy bears."

Tadashi grinned. "That's the spirit," he laughed, ruffling his little brother's hair (Hiro didn't try to smack his hand anymore, but still grumbled about it). Grabbing Hiro's navy blue hoody and tossing it to its owner, he said, "Get dressed, I'll wait for you downstairs."

Hiro sighed, but smiled nonetheless. He had to admit that, despite the headache he got from his last visit, he really did miss going to the lab. He would always treasure the fond memory of his first visit, before all this technopath mess happened. Quickly changing out of his pajamas and into his every day wear, he shoved his arm through the too-long sleeves of his hoody and walked out the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

* * *

"Hold on tight, little brother," Tadashi laughed as he (purposefully) made a sharp turn. "Don't want you to go flying off."

"Then drive like a normal person, nerd!" was Hiro's muffled reply. He had his face buried in Tadashi's back, clinging on to his brother's waist for dear life. Usually Tadashi was always one for following the rules and being safe (like a loser). Turn slowly, stop at stop signs, don't rush yellow lights, the usual traffic laws. He left the daredevil stunts to Gogo. However, for some reason, today he was being extra cheerful, breaking the rules and just acting completely out of character. First, he allowed Hiro to miss a day of lessons, and second, he broke at least ten traffic laws in less than five minutes. If Hiro had to guess, he would've thought that Tadashi was trying to please him for some reason. Which only made the child more suspicious.

"Okay, spill," Hiro said when Tadashi screeched to a halt ( _extremely_ out of character, his brother cherished his moped almost as much as he cherished Hiro) in front of the school. He jumped off the moped, slightly wobbly at his feet from his older brother's crazy (but pretty fun, he couldn't deny that) driving. "What's with you today?"

Tadashi didn't answer, and instead said, "Hey, you wanna get some pancakes? There's this place on campus that has _great_ pancakes, they give you all this extra whip cream and fresh strawberries with-"

" _Tadashi_ ," Hiro snapped. He didn't intend to sound rude, but he was honestly getting tired of his brother acting so strangely. "Unless it's my birthday, or something bad happened, you _never_ act like this. So what's up?"

At the "something bad happened" part of his question, Hiro saw his brother visibly tense up. Hiro crossed his arms and promptly sat on the floor. It was childish, yes, to sit on the concrete by the parking lot, but he wanted answers. "I'm not moving until you tell me what happened," he declared.

Tadashi rolled his eyes. "Sorry to break the news to you, bro, but that doesn't change anything. I could still pick you up." To prove his point, Tadashi wrapped his arms around Hiro's waist and swiftly lifted him up, much to Hiro's embarrassment. "You really should think about gaining some weight, _otouto_ ," Tadashi laughed as Hiro went limp in his arms, sighing dejectedly. "I'd be surprised if a gust of wind didn't knock you over, you look like a noodle."

"It's not my fault you're so freaking huge," Hiro muttered, pushing himself away from Tadashi. Still laughing, Tadashi carefully placed Hiro back on his feet, jokingly dusting off Hiro's head.

"Aren't I allowed to baby my baby brother every now and then?" Tadashi cooed, lightly poking Hiro's still red cheeks.

"It's weird," Hiro grumbled lamely. "You're weird."

"Thank you for that _amazing_ compliment," Tadashi snorted, walking toward the building. Hiro trailed after him, still not looking satisfied. The older Hamada sighed, then said, "Hey." He squatted down to look his brother in the eyes. "How 'bout this. If you let me baby you for the day, I'll tell you what's up before we head home. I won't sugarcoat anything, and I promise I won't hide anything. I'll tell you everything at the end of the day, deal?"

Hiro hesitated, then stuck out his pinky. "Pinky promise?" he asked.

Laughing at their age-old tradition, Tadashi linked their pinkies together and said, "Pinky promise."

Hiro still didn't look happy, but he smiled and said half seriously, "Well, if you're gonna baby me for the day, you might as well carry me into the lab."

"Hah," Tadashi snorted, standing up and patting his jeans. "I said baby you, not treat you like a crowned prince."

* * *

Just as the brother's were about to enter the lab, Tadashi stopped and slapped a hand to his face. "Ah, crap," he sighed. "I left some papers at home."

Hiro shrugged. "Go get them," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "It's not like it's my first time here, I know my way around the lab."

"Are you sure?" Tadashi asked worriedly. "I mean, last time you came, you got sick, remember?"

"That was three years ago, bro," Hiro replied exasperatedly while rolling his eyes. "I'm sure I'll be fine for the next half hour, _aniki*_."

"Hey, hey," Tadashi chastised, smacking the back of Hiro's head lightly. "Even if we don't speak Japanese regularly, at least remember to be polite."

"Sorry," Hiro muttered, rubbing the back of his head. He grinned and bowed mockingly, "I apologize, _onii-sama_ , please forgive this lowly being."

"Knucklehead," Tadashi snorted, ruffling Hiro's hair good-naturedly. "Anyways, I'll be back in a bit, 'kay? Don't get into too much trouble. Watch out for other students' projects. Oh! And don't wander around! The last thing I need to see if Wasabi calling me about you wandering into his lasers… and don't touch any-"

"Geez, Tadashi!" Hiro grumbled, covering his ears with his hands. "It's like you think I've never been in a lab before! I'll be _fine_!"

Tadashi still looked unsure, but had no other choice. After another five minutes of fussing over Hiro, he left hurriedly to go back home. Of course, not before sneakily swooping down and planting a sloppy kiss on his brother's head. And, of course Hiro, being Hiro, disgustedly wiped at his messy hair.

Still chuckling, Tadashi started his moped and zoomed out of his school. His heart felt heavy as he rehearsed how he was going to deliver his news to Hiro later that day.

After all, he _did_ pinky promise.

* * *

Hiro walked into the lab after Tadashi ran out of the building, still furiously scrubbing at the place his brother had managed to successfully plant his lips. Muttering to himself under his breath, he pushed the big door open and (once again) narrowly avoided a yellow blur.

"Morning, Gogo," Hiro called, carefully making his way over to the Korean woman. He hopped on to a nearby stool and observed his friend at work.

"Hey, squirt," she said as she took off her helmet. Tossing that to the side, she grabbed some tools sitting by the bike and angrily fiddled at her invention.

"Magnetic suspensions giving you problems again?" he asked, tipping his head to the side curiously.

"Nah, it's something else," she sighed, throwing the tools angrily with all her might. Luckily it glanced off the wall and not some poor passerby's head. "I don't know what happened!" she exclaimed angrily. "One second, it's working fine, and then it goes wonky and refuses to go past 60!"

"Want me to help?" the child offered helpfully. "You know, I could just ask it to-"

"No," Gogo cut in sharply, turning and jabbing a finger at the child. "As much as I appreciate the offer, kid, it's my project and I'm gonna fix it on my own." She sighed as she walked over to pick up her tools. "Plus," she added, "Tadashi would kill me if he hears I used your "skills"…"

"True," Hiro sighed, kicking his feet out aimlessly. "Where's everyone else?"

Without looking up from her work, Gogo pointed further into the lab. "Wasabi's out testing his lasers, Honey's mixing up… something, and Fred's being Fred."

Chirping a quick "thanks," Hiro bounced off the stool and ambled over to the tall blond in the corner. Honey Lemon didn't notice him walk over, too absorbed in her work and her music. Curiously, he perched himself carelessly in front of her table, both trying to figure out what she was working on and wondering how long it would take her to notice his presence.

From what he could tell, she seemed to be trying to come up with a fabric that could melt metal upon impact without damaging the person holding it. As he figured it out, Honey looked up and gasped. "Oh! Hiro, I didn't see you there!" she quickly yanked out her ear buds and pulled Hiro in for a hug. "I'm sorry I missed you guys this weekend, my neighbors left for a while and I needed to babysit…"

"That's fine," Hiro laughed. "Chiyeki came back for a bit, I think it was kinda like a quick get together."

"Oh, is that so?" Honey Lemon giggled, making a mental note to ask her friends for more information later. As much as she liked seeing old friends, if one as dangerous as this one came back something had to be wrong. "I heard you and Tadashi went to a tech convention. How was that?"

Hiro's face lit up. "It was great!" he exclaimed happily. "There was a bunch of new tech that came out, and they held this mini competition between the people that were displaying. I wanted to make something too but Tadashi said no… he said it was glorified bot fighting, which is illegal, and-"

Honey Lemon couldn't help but smile at the enthusiasm and happiness in her young friend's voice. All her previous worries quickly melted away, and the next thing she knew, she was in a heated debate over the importance of armor and defense in a fight.

* * *

A few minutes into their conversation, a professor walked over to Honey Lemon, asking for a quick word. Throwing Hiro a quick apologetic glance, she turned and walked out the lab with the teacher.

Almost melting with boredom, Hiro dragged his feet to Tadashi's office, hoping to catch a few minutes of shuteye. While all the talking from the tech around him didn't overwhelm him, it did make his body feel heavy. Luckily, Tadashi's office was separate from all the chaos, and while the tech in his office also had voices, it was considerably better than staying outside.

Collapsing on the couch with a satisfied sigh, Hiro closed his eyes, ready for yet another dream.

 _Well, that was an interesting experience_ , a disembodied voice murmured in his head.

Hiro's eyes flew open as he shot up, looking around worriedly. This was Tadashi's private office. No one should be in here except for him or its owner.

 _Relax, Einstein, it's me_ , the voice snorted.

Hiro looked around unsurely, then muttered, "Peniel?"

 _Surprise!_ the girl's voice sang. _Were you surprised?_

"Well, yeah," Hiro said, voice slowly turning from anxious to aggravated. "You only show up in my dreams, how are you suddenly talking now?"

 _Who know?_ she sighed (Hiro could practically hear the shrug). _Might be all this good quality tech you're surrounded by right now. Your brain is going crazy trying to keep everything under control, which is how I slipped through._

"So is this a regular thing now or what?" Hiro replied derisively. "Am I gonna be hearing you 24/7?"

 _Hmm… I don't think so_ , she said vaguely. _In fact…_ Her voice was starting to dim down. _I'll go before someone hears you talking to yourself_ , she giggled quietly before disappearing completely.

Just then the doors of the office burst open.

* * *

Tadashi rushed into the lab as soon as he parked his moped. Fumbling with his helmet strap, he weaved his way through the students and different inventions, hurrying to his office. Waving a quick hello to his friends, he burst through the doors, hunching over and panting from his run.

"Tadashi," Hiro scoffed as he watched his brother struggle to catch his breath, "I'm _fine_ , see?"

"Sorry, couldn't risk it," Tadashi wheezed, plopping down next to his brother on the couch.

"Did you get your papers?" Hiro asked absentmindedly, tapping away at some coding on his phone. For future use, of course.

"Yeah, right here." The papers were thrown onto the couch in what was Tadashi's version of anger (so, extremely carefully and not that rage filled.) "Turns out the stupid thing isn't even due till next week."

"Rotten luck," Hiro murmured sympathetically.

"You don't know the half of it," Tadashi groaned back, sinking his face into the arm of the soft cushion. Today was gonna be a long day…

* * *

Hiro couldn't remember the last time he was treated like royalty. Sure, there was his birthday, but that was still a good month away. He couldn't deny that today was the best day he'd had in a _long_ time.

Which, of course, only made him more suspicious.

Tadashi's first and only class of the day was cancelled (Hiro had a biting suspicion that his brother was lying and was ditching class to spend time with him, but no proof could back his claim.) They ended up spending most of their time in the lab, tinkering and welding away at small, meaningless inventions. Tadashi even managed to get him some magnetic bearing servos. Hiro had excitedly crafted a small robot out of the three pieces, dubbing it Megabot. He had all the intent to use his new bot for this botfighting that he'd heard so much about. Tadashi didn't approve, muttering about how it was illegal and dangerous, but Hiro merely shrugged off his brother's concern and continued working on Megabot.

Halfway into Megabot's creation, Robert Callaghan had dropped by to say a brief good morning to his student. Tadashi had to hold Hiro down to keep him from running away. After a stuttering "good morning," and a lot of staring at his shoes, Hiro managed to look the professor in the eyes without spazzing out. He even got some advice from the renowned professor, a cheerful, "keep up the good work!" and a pat on the back. Tadashi was pretty sure the kid was gonna faint from happiness after his professor left.

For lunch, Tadashi took Hiro to a small restaurant a little ways off campus that served free dessert with every dish ordered (there was a special promotion going on or something…) Hiro got into a major sugar rush after his giant sundae with extra, extra, EXTRA gummy bears (Tadashi was pretty sure they bought out the store.) His little brother was jumping around so much that Tadashi had to literally sit on him as he paid for their meal. A sugar high Hiro was something no one wanted to see. His little brother already had no filter when he spoke, but the sugar just made what little filter he had completely disappear.

"Hey Dashi, did you know," Hiro babbled on the way back to campus, "that hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words? I mean it's pretty ironic isn't it, that the fear of long words is a super long word?"

Tadashi wasn't sure what was more impressive, the fact that Hiro knew such a useless amount of trivia or the fact that he managed to say that full sentence in less than five seconds.

The trivia wave didn't stop there. In the next ten minutes that it took to get back to school, Tadashi learned more random trivia, incuding info like the first pig flew in 1909, the longest one-syllable English word is "screeched," most calico cats are female, and female named hurricanes are more deadly than male named hurricanes. Where he would use all this knowledge he had no idea, but Hiro didn't seem to care and just kept spouting random facts no one would ever think was necessary to know. When they were one block away from campus, Hiro started spouting out the squares of all the numbers (he got to 59 before Tadashi finally reached the school and got him to shut up.)

Luckily for him, all that sugar eventually caused the child to crash, getting Tadashi almost two hours of rest as Hiro took a nap when they got back to the school. When he woke up, Tadashi activated Baymax and the brothers engaged into a casual discussion over how to improve Baymax's functions (Hiro recommended super capacitors to replace the lithium ion for a faster charge.)

To sum it up, Hiro had the best day of his life and he was glaring at his brother by the end of the day. This day had been too good to be true. Something was definitely wrong.

"Alright, spill," Hiro echoed himself from earlier that day as he and Tadashi walked back to the elder's moped at the end of the day. "What happened that was so traumatic that I deserved such a great day?"

Now, Tadashi, on the other hand, apart from the time he spent with his brother, had one of his _worst_ days today. He received a speeding ticket on his way home to get his stupid assignment that wasn't even due, he had to spend a bunch of his savings to convince one of his classmates to get him the magnetic bearing servos, and he didn't even have enough on him by the end of the day to pay the restaurant tip. As he was dragging a hyper Hiro out, he had to keep his head ducked from all the dirty looks the waiters were shooting him. And don't even _mention_ his drive back to campus (surprising what ten minutes of nonstop talking could do to a headache.)

However, he would've been willing to go through all of that again rather than tell Hiro his news.

"You wanna sit down, little brother?" Tadashi sighed, gesturing to a bench they were passing.

Hiro huffed and sat down, crossing his arms as he hissed, "Seriously, Dashi, _what is it_?"

"I went to the private tutoring agency the other day," Tadashi began quietly, not meeting Hiro's eyes.

"And?" the child inquired. "Do I get a new teacher? When do we start our lessons? Am I bumping up a grade?"

"Hiro," Tadashi whispered, putting his hands on his brother's shoulders to keep him down. "You have to go to high school."

The silence that ensued was deafening. Tadashi wanted nothing more than to laugh and say, "just kidding, I found you another teacher."

And by the look on Hiro's face, he wanted Tadashi to say that too.

"You're kidding… right, _onii-chan_?" he muttered disbelievingly. "This is just some sick joke right? Right?!"

"I'm sorry, _otouto_ ," Tadashi whispered mournfully. "There aren't any tutors that want to try and teach you. The only other option is school, and…"

No words needed to be said. Both brothers immediately had the same recollections. Tadashi, pulling kids half his age (yet taller than him, what were their parents feeding them?) off his younger brother, biting and scratching and threatening them away with all the strength a 13 year old could muster. Hiro, coming home with fresh bruises and scratches, yet always saying the same thing: "I fell." Tadashi, spending almost every day of his high school career wondering about his little brother's safety. Hiro, walking through the middle school hallways at the age of 6, hearing barely concealed whispers of contempt, "loser"… "weirdo"… " _freak_."

"Hey, maybe it won't be so bad," Tadashi offered, giving his brother a small reassuring smile. "I mean, kids will have learned to treat others with respect by now, right?"

Hiro only replied with an owlish blink. Sluggishly, almost as though he wasn't aware of his actions, Hiro got off the bench and pushed away Tadashi's hands. "I'm tired," he murmured. "I would like to go home now."

The older Hamada swallowed, heart dropping at how emotionless his brother sounded. "Hey, cheer up," he laughed weakly. "Besides, there's still some time left in the day. Do you wanna drive around town and maybe see some-"

"Please," Hiro whispered, not looking at his brother. "I want to go home."

Tadashi's heart hit rock bottom. "Okay," he sighed. "Let's go home, buddy."

The ride home was quiet. Neither sibling exchanged a word. As soon as they got home, Hiro crawled into bed, covering himself with blankets. Tadashi tried calling him down for dinner, but no reply.

Tadashi sighed, nibbling half-heartedly at the hot wings he had made. _Why can't this be easier_ , he groaned inwardly, slumping and resting his chin on the table. Closing his eyes, he sighed when he heard what suspiciously sounded like crying, soft sobs that echoed through the silent house.

It was never going to be easy.

* * *

 **Heyyo~ xD I was kinda stuck on what to write? But I got through my stump (thank GOD)**

 **Also, when I said the fandom isn't doing so great, I just feel like it's not as hyped as it was months ago? :P might be just me, but let's keep fighting right? xD WAITING FOR THAT SEQUEL**

 **Also, thank you to that guest who used a quote from the movie that was much appreciated LOL**

 ***aniki is kinda a ruder way of saying older brother, more pointless Japanese terminology knowledge (thanks anime)**

 **Review, follow, favorite, all that good stuff**


	5. Chapter 5: Shopping

Chapter 5: Shopping

"Dashi, wake up!"

"Huh?" Tadashi groaned blurrily as he shot upright.

Slightly confused at where he was, he looked around tiredly, sleep still weighing down his eyelids. Recognizing the layout of his living room, he realized he must've knocked out on the couch last night after he and Hir-

Oh. That's right…

He ended up falling asleep after worrying about Hiro that night. After telling the kid he had to go back to school.

Imagine his surprise when he looked down to see a very awake and very angry Hiro.

"Morning, little bro," Tadashi sighed, not bothering to hide his huge yawn as he stretched. "How did you sleep last night?"

"Better than you," Hiro commented, eyeing the couch. Despite the soft plush of the cushions, it was just a couch. Tadashi could already feel his muscles cramping from the small space his temporary bed had provided him.

"Don't get snarky," Tadashi snorted, good-naturedly ruffling his brother's hair. "So what's up?"

Hiro looked down hesitantly. He took a deep breath and murmured, "I thought about what you said last night… and I'm just gonna say… I'll try it."

Tadashi, who was already drifting off, snapped awake immediately to gape at his little brother. Hiro merely blinked back owlishly, his eyes clearly saying, "What?"

"So… you're willing to go to school?" Tadashi asked carefully, barely containing the excitement threatening to burst through his voice.

Hiro sighed, but smiled. "Yes, I'll try."

"Th-that's great!" Tadashi exclaimed, grabbing Hiro and happily spinning him around the room. A joyful laugh bubbled out of his throat while Hiro squawked at his brother to put him down. "What made you change your mind?"

Hiro shrugged. "I thought it through a bit and decided, maybe you're right. Maybe it won't be as bad as…"

"Yeah," Tadashi cut in quickly, not wanting to bring up bad memories. "Don't worry, bro, just watch. My high school years had to be one of my favorite school experiences."

"Liar," his brother huffed. "It was only swell for you cuz you were such a nice guy who picked up books and cleaned up after school with teachers."

"It'll be fine," Tadashi replied soothingly. "Now come on. Let's get you registered and call the gang to get your back to school stuff." He smiled goofily and smothered his little brother in another hug. "This'll be fun."

"Right…" was all Hiro grumbled back.

* * *

Tadashi scrambled around, grabbing any documents to school might need. Throwing a quick "eat breakfast!" over his shoulder, he ran out the door and headed to the high school (completely forgetting that he didn't even make any breakfast for his kid brother.)

Hiro sighed as he waved at his brother (who was currently stumbling onto his moped.) There was no way he was telling him why he suddenly changed his mind.

That night, as he cried himself to sleep, Hiro opened his eyes to see Peniel standing there. No tricks, no illusions, just the little girl in his head.

"Why won't you go to school?" she demanded. She looked seriously pissed, and Hiro had no idea why.

"Because, I don't want to go through all that bullying again!" Hiro yelled, his voice echoing through the empty space. "You went through my head, you saw all that! Why would I want to go back?"

Peniel was not impressed with his outburst. "You have the chance to go to school," she hissed. "Trust me, there's a small part of your brain that wants to go, and as that small part, I'm telling you, you _need to go_."

"No, I don't," Hiro scoffed. "What can they teach me that I don't already know?"

"Maybe why your big head is hardwired to control technology?" Peniel spat angrily. "Or why I even exist in your head? Can you tell me why, genius?"

Hiro faltered. "No…" he mumbled unsurely.

"Then that's why you need to go!" she hissed. "You may be a prodigy, but you don't know everything, brat!"

"Shut up, you don't know anything about me!" Hiro screamed, swiping at her image.

She dissipated at his touch, shimmering out of sight. Her voice eerily whispered, "I know you more than you know yourself, kid…"

He woke up immediately after her haunting words. Furious, he stormed downstairs to see his brother sleeping in the most uncomfortable looking position on the couch. As much as he didn't want to admit it, there was a small part of him that wanted to go back to school, to experience what it was like to be a normal kid. With his special skill and his enhanced brain, he knew nothing in his life would ever be "normal," so why not give it a shot now that he had an opportunity?

 _Well, no backing out now_ , Hiro chuckled to himself lightly as he watched Tadashi zoom down the street in a flustered flurry. _Might as well get some breakfast and practice a bit…_

* * *

A few hours later, Tadashi slowed to a halt in front of his house triumphantly. He was happy to say that, even though it took some convincing, he managed to get Hiro enrolled in the nearby highschool. His little brother would be starting his freshman year in a few short days.

"I'm back!" Tadashi called happily, throwing his keys down at the kitchen table. "Hiro, did you eat yet?"

His brother looked exhausted, head pressed down on the table. "Hey," he groaned back to his older sibling tiredly.

"Why so tired?" Tadashi asked as he opened up the fridge, pulling out the carton of milk.

"You kinda didn't leave breakfast," Hiro mumbled, turning his head to face his brother. "So I decided to practice by making bagels."

Tadashi froze. "Ohhh, shoot," he groaned. "Sorry about that, bro, I totally-"

"Forgot, yeah I know," Hiro sighed. "It's fine."

"How's practice going?" the older Hamada asked sheepishly.

"It's been better," his brother grumbled. "I managed to get the toaster on without exploding anything. But it's still super tiring…"

"Go take a nap," Tadashi offered, making himself a bowl of cereal. "When you wake up, I'll get the gang together to go back-to-school shopping."

"No thanks," Hiro said quickly. The last thing he needed was to see Peniel, especially after the argument they had the night before. "Can we just go out? I'm bored."

"Sure, that works too," his brother replied, digging through the drawers for a spoon. "Why don't you go rest up a bit on the couch and we'll go as soon as I'm done with this cereal?"

Nodding gratefully, Hiro dragged himself off his chair and slumped over to the couch, collapsing in Tadashi's temporary bed from the night before. "I'm sorry for insulting you, you're really comfy," Hiro murmured absentmindedly, sinking his face into the pillows. He closed his eyes, fighting to stay awake. He really didn't need to see Peniel gloating over her victory right now.

After a bit of waiting on the couch, Hiro heard the clatter of dishes being placed in the sink. Sighing in relief, he walked upstairs to change out of his sleeping clothes. Now that Tadashi was done eating, it was time to go shopping…

* * *

To say Honey Lemon was ecstatic was an understatement. As soon as Tadashi called her and said, "shopping," she squealed and agreed immediately. She agreed to call Gogo and promised to meet up with the boys at the local mall. Hiro went upstairs to change as Tadashi called the rest of his friends. They were all happy that Hiro wasn't feeling too down about going to school, and were more than happy to get some back-to-school materials for the kid. A few calls back and forth and they eventually set up a plan: Wasabi would go pick up Fred, then go and pick up Tadashi and Hiro. From there, they would all go to the mall and meet up with Honey and Gogo.

Hiro pulled on the sleeves of his oversized hoodie as he ran downstairs, fully dressed and ready to go. Tadashi placed two Poptarts in the toaster for Hiro (since he actually ended up burning his bagels) as he went to take a quick shower. By the time he was done, Hiro had eaten, his friends were knocking on the door, and they were all ready to go.

The high school Tadashi enrolled Hiro in had already started for a solid month. Tadashi was worried, not because his brother couldn't catch up (that kid could probably catch up in his sleep), but because he was afraid of how the other students would treat him. It's always hard to transfer schools, and it's especially hard to transfer in later in the school year. Tadashi was scared that now that the school had already started and the kids already formed their friend groups, Hiro would be isolated and excluded.

Of course, high school always has its complications. Tadashi would know, he went through high school too. It wasn't the same as Hiro, but he knew what it felt like to be gawked at as the "new kid."

And he needed Hiro to know that no matter what, he would stand behind his brother all the way.

"Okay, so what's the mission?" Gogo asked as the group walked into the mall.

"Let's get him a new backpack," Honey gushed, scrolling through a list on her phone. "And new clothes! Ohh let's go to a market and get him some new pens and pencils and-"

"Honey, chill!" Fred cut her off, waving his arms in front of his tall friend. "We'll just walk around and pick up whatever we need, okay? How's that sound to everyone?"

"Works for me," Wasabi shrugged. "Just don't forget to wash your hands after you touch everything."

"Come on, guys," Tadashi chuckled, grabbing Hiro's shoulders and steering him towards the first store. "Let's go look for a new backpack for our little high school boy, alright?"

* * *

A few hours later, Hiro got a new green backpack, along with some new clothes (per Honey's request.) They also bought him several notebooks, a binder, a pencil case filled with pencils, pens, and all sorts of writing utensils.

After literally walking around the whole day, to say they were dead tired was an understatement. After a quick dinner, the group quickly piled into Wasabi's car to go home.

The small van pulled up to the Hamada residence. Tadashi slowly shuffled out, carrying a sleeping Hiro on his back. Waving a quick goodbye and bidding his friends goodnight (Fred was passed out in the front seat and Honey was drifting off), he walked up his steps as the car pulled away.

Struggling to reach his keys without shaking his slumbering brother, he did a mini victory dance in his head when the door clicked open. Carefully balancing all of Hiro's new supplies in one hand and keeping his brother on his back with the other, he kicked the door closed and made his way to their room quietly. Gently dumping Hiro in his bed, Tadashi tucked him in and smiled. It had been a while since Hiro last looked as happy as he had today. They walked through the mall and at every tech store, he had his face press against the glass and marveling at the glorious metal robots on display. It was one of the few times Tadashi ever saw Hiro ever act his age. Like a little kid.

His brother was a genius, there was no doubt about that. But because of his intellect, he often tried to act older than he actually was. As happy as he was to see his brother interact with his friends, it still made him feel sad that the ten year old felt more comfortable around college students over kids his own age. Because of this attitude, it made it hard for people to approach the child prodigy. They were intimidated by his mind and chose to stay away. It was one of the reasons his brother never made any real friends.

Of course, there was one kid, Ciel. While they weren't exactly friends, Ciel didn't avoid Hiro either. During their breaks in middle school, despite Hiro being a few years younger than him, Ciel still spent his time with the younger child. Other kids gossiped behind their backs, and although Ciel wasn't bullied, the middle schoolers didn't exactly like him either. They day Ciel transferred to another school was the day the seven year old decided he had enough of middle school.

Tadashi walked down the stairs to lock the front door and make sure everything else was secure. After that incident three years ago, Tadashi made sure to check every night that all the windows were locked, all the doors were closed and locked, and the security system set. It was a bit overkill, sure, but now that he had news that Koetsu was back, he needed to be extra careful. After all, Koetsu got in once. What was to stop him from getting in again.

Walking back up the steps silently, Tadashi thought back to what Chiyeki said. _"…keep an eye out for possible dangers…"_

As much as he didn't want to admit it, he knew Chiyeki was on to something with those scientists disappearing. He didn't know what Koetsu was planning, and he didn't want to find out. A nagging voice in his head even nudged him slightly in the direction that the prisoner's escaped had something to do with his old enemy as well…

After all, the prison Ripper was being transferred to was a top of the class prison cell. Located on a large rock in the middle of the ocean. The chances of any inmate escaping were so slim that guards didn't even have to stand guard on the outside. That and the fact that large waves crashed down on the side of the rock, threatening to drag any unfortunate soul into a watery death, That or get smashed to pieces on the rocks that were scattered everywhere along the shores.

And yet, this guy escaped. After taking down almost a whole squadron of armed guards. Of course, that is, if he had worked alone.

Tadashi shook his head. _You're being ridiculous_ , he chastised himself. _You're just tired, that's all… now go to bed. You have a long day tomorrow, and Hiro starts school in s few days. You don't have time to stress about overactive theories and nonsense!_

Climbing into bed, Tadashi stared at the ceiling with his arms crossed behind his head. But what if… what if his nonsensical theory was true? It was worth looking into. After all, at this point, anything could be possible.

 _I'll talk with Honey Lemon tomorrow_ , Tadashi decided. _Maybe she could pass a word to her dad…_ He wasn't the chief of police for nothing after all.

Closing his eyes, he sighed and settled in for a well-deserved sleep.

* * *

Hiro sighed, sinking his face into his palms, elbows propped on his crossed legs. "If you want to gloat, just get it over with, Peniel."

"Hey there, Mr. Genius," Peniel beamed smugly, "Seems like someone's in a rather bad mood. What's the matter, little boy?" she cackled as she poked Hiro's face.

"Stop it!" he exclaimed, smacking at her hands. "And I can't believe I actually agreed to go to some stupid school!"

"No, you do," Peniel huffed and crossed her arms. "You're happy. You _want_ to go to school. You want to feel like a normal kid again. But you're afraid of how the brats will treat you, especially if they found out about, well, this," she gestured to the space around them exasperatedly. "Stop lying to yourself, kid."

"Fine, fine, I want to go to school," Hiro snapped. "But it's _not_ cuz I wanna feel normal. I _am_ normal."

"Uh-huh," Peniel sighed. "Keep telling yourself that kid, you're not fooling me."

"What do you know!" Hiro yelled, pushing himself onto his feet. "You're just some image in my head, how do you know so much?"

"You'll find out soon enough," she chuckled darkly. "Now, come on." She raised her arms and several large robots erupted from the ground. "It's training time."

* * *

The dark figure looked up, glancing around him. Not a person in sight. He grinned. _Good_ , he smirked. _Gives me more time to enjoy myself…_

Hiding in the shadows, he watched as a bouncy blonde girl turned the corner, right into his awaiting trap. As she crossed him, time slowed. He reached out, grabbing her arms behind her and using his other hand to muffle her screams. A few scuffles later, he had her completely constrained, hands tied up by zip ties and knees on the ground. A dirty cloth was shoved in her mouth to muffle her cries. The night returned to being silent, save for the few muffled screams that were drowned out by the sound of traffic in the distance.

"Hello, there pretty," Ripper crooned as he stroked her face lovingly. "What are _you_ doing out so late, doll? Didn't you hear? There's a killer on the loose."

She could only tremble and look down, refuse to look up and accept her inevitable fate. Tears streamed down her face as she squeezed her eyes closed.

"Hey, don't do that," Ripper snarled, grabbing her hair and yanking her up. He ignored her muffled yelps of indignation as she struggled to get a footing on the slippery floor. Pinning her to the wall, he wiped away a tear on her cheek and smiled charmingly. "I'm not gonna hurt you, dear."

She relaxed slightly. Big mistake.

"Of course," he continued. "If I said that, I would be lying. And what kind of gentleman lies to such a beautiful woman like yourself?" He reached into his coat and pulled out an item that made her heart stop cold.

The silver blade of the dagger gleamed in the moonlight. Ripper smiled and licked his lips. "This is gonna be fun," he chuckled, raising the blade high above his head.

The sound of the traffic on the nearby freeway drowned out her muffled screams of agony as he plunged his blade repeatedly into her body.

No one heard a thing.

He whistled his nursery rhyme the whole time, even when her blood slapped onto his face and clothes, covering his skin in a hideously beautiful dark red. Even as she screamed, tears mixing in with her blood. Even when she locked her eyes with his, begging him to stop.

He only smiled and whistled louder.

* * *

 **HELLO EVERYONE! MISS ME?**

 **Thank you all for being so patient! I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. It's just that school started recently for me and it's been pretty busy with juggling school and my personal life and writing. Also, ngl, I kinda lost that spark? Like, that motivation to write anymore. But, it came back to me today (YAY) and I'm back babies :)**

 **Thank you guys so much for all the support and love! And thanks for the positive feedback on Other Worlds. It kinda just came to me, I have no idea how tbh.**

 **The other stories will be updated soon!**

 **Enjoy this long awaited comeback lol there will be more to come!**

 **Review, suggestions, follow, favorite, I trust you guys to know what to do at this point ^^**


	6. Chapter 6: New Kid

**Hey hey, I'm back ^^**

 **Sorry I haven't updated in... months... -.- I've been super busy lately ^^**

 **But, here's the new update! I'll try to be more timely with my updates (no promises) but just remember I'm not giving up on this story yet ^^**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 6: New Kid

"You nervous?"

"How could I be, it's not like I'm a ten-year-old little kid about to go to his first day of high school."

"Hey," Tadashi shot Hiro a stern glance. "No need to be snarky."

"Sorry," Hiro muttered, kicking his feet aimlessly as Tadashi drove their old truck through early morning traffic. "It's just… they've already been in school for almost a month now… what if…"

"What, are you afraid you can't catch up?" Tadashi asked teasingly, nudging Hiro's arm lightly.

"Of course not," Hiro scoffed. "It's just… they all have their own groups now, and I'll just be the weird new kid… and, you know…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Tadashi cut in quickly, gesturing wildly with one hand for Hiro to stop talking. "Don't worry about it, kiddo! Listen, everything's gonna be _fine_ , okay? You'll make great friends, and you'll get through all your classes easily, and before you know it, you'll be out there, helping people, _making_ things better. If you keep thinking of the depressing stuff, there's no way you can move on, bud. No one knows what'll happen in the future, so there's no use in worrying about it now."

"I guess… you're right…" Hiro eventually sighed after a few moments of silence. "I might just be overthinking things…"

"Then stop thinking," Tadashi laughed. "Turn off your brain for just a bit, it won't hurt you."

"Yeah, you're right Dashi," Hiro smiled lightly. "I'm being ridiculous…"

"Don't worry about it, kiddo," the older Hamada chuckled. "You're just a little nervous about the first day of school. Especially since it's been a while since you've actually been in school."

"You're right, I'm being silly," Hiro shook his head firmly and clapped his hands to his face, clearing his thoughts. "It shouldn't be that bad right? I mean, we've been through worse…"

"You got that right," Tadashi snorted. "Okay, we're here," he muttered, pulling into the vacant parking lot. "Guess we're here a little early, huh?"

"If by 'a little,' you mean an hour, then yea, we're a little early," Hiro said sarcastically."

"Come on," Tadashi laughed, parking the truck quickly. "Let's get you to the front desk so you can get your classes."

* * *

"Hello, may I help you?" A bored looking middle-aged woman drawled as Tadashi steered Hiro towards the front desk.

"Yes, hi, this is Hiro," Tadashi introduced. She stared at him blankly.

"Hamada?" he tried. Still nothing. "New student," he sighed.

"Oh!" she snapped her finger as the lightbulb in her head went off. "Yes, yes, Mr. Hamada, of course! How could I forget," she cooed overly sweetly. "Here's your schedule, dear." She handed Hiro some papers, including a waiver each teacher had to sign ("bring it back here at the end of school"), a map of campus ("in case you get lost"), and his schedule. "You can pick him up at 3, dear," she smiled forcibly at Tadashi.

Smiling back (it felt more like a grimace), Tadashi quickly guided Hiro outside. It wasn't surprising to Tadashi when as soon as the lady thought they weren't looking, she scowled and rolled her eyes. _She_ obviously hated her job.

"Ok," Tadashi sighed. "I'll be here around 2:45, alright? Just call me if anything happens. You have your lunch money, notebooks, pencils…"

"Tadashi," Hiro laughed. "I'll be _fine_. If I could survive three days on an island with fox lady, I'm sure a few hours at school will be nothing."

"God, don't remind me," the older Hamada shuddered. "Just… call me, okay? If you need anything, if you want to talk, if you need help-"

"Got it, bro," Hiro smiled. "Don't worry, okay? I'll be _fine_ , I swear. Now go to class, before you're late."

"…Alright…" Tadashi finally said unsurely, "but seriously, if you want to wait one more-"

"Tadashi, don't be a worrisome mom, you were the one that said I should go to school. And I'm ready now, alright?" Tadashi opened his mouth to object, but Hiro quickly wrapped his arms around his older brother's torso. "I love you, nii-chan," he said sincerely. "And I _promise_ I will call you at break. Now, go to school or you'll be late."

"Okay," Tadashi replied, still uneasy. He hugged his brother back, gently patting him on the back. "I'll be going now," he murmured. "I love you, too, little bro."

"I'll see you at 3," Hiro said, letting go of Tadashi and waving goodbye. "Have fun at school! Tell the gang I said hi."

"Will do," Tadashi laughed, climbing into the truck. "Good luck, Hiro! Use that big brain of yours to make some friends, 'kay?"

"Whatever," Hiro rolled his eyes "Get going, nerd."

"Have a great day!" the older Hamada chuckled. "I'll see you in a few hours."

"Bye," Hiro said halfheartedly, waving as Tadashi drove away. "See you…"

* * *

Even as he drove away, seeing Hiro wave at him through his mirror, Tadashi still couldn't help but feel nervous. Some part of him, be it the mother hen part or the older brother part, felt like something was going to happen. Something bad.

 _I hope I'm wrong_ , he sighed inwardly.

* * *

 _Another half an hour till my first class_ , Hiro thought wearily. As if being in school wasn't bad enough. He sighed and slouched on the bench he was sitting on, looking at the map, boredom pouring from every inch of his body. He had, of course, already memorized the map in the few minutes he had been alone on campus.

 _Hey, quit worrying_ , Peniel whispered in his head. _It'll be fun._

"No it won't" Hiro moaned miserably.

"I'm sorry, but who are you talking to?"

Surprised, Hiro quickly scrambled over to the other side of the bench, grabbing his things and dragging it over with him.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" A man with a kindly smile on his face chuckled. He had his salt and pepper hair neatly combed back. His shirt was crisp and tidy, not a wrinkle in sight. He kinda reminded Hiro of a middle-aged version of Tadashi. "I'm Mr. Yakashima, your homeroom teacher," the man introduced himself. "Do you have any questions of our school policies or your schedule?"

"N-no, thank you," Hiro stuttered nervously.

"Well, if you ever need anything, just come on over to my office. I'll be there if you ever need anything."

"T-thanks," Hiro murmured. His teacher smiled and waved goodbye, walking into the classroom to prepare for his morning class.

Sighing still, Hiro slouched back down onto the bench. "Thanks for making me look like an idiot, Penny," Hiro muttered.

 _Penny_ , she muttered. _I like it. And no problem_ , she said cheerfully.

"How are you _here_ , anyways," he hissed. "Don't you only come out in my sleep, or when there's good tech around."

 _The latter's in work right now_ , "Penny" cackled. _This place has some_ really _nice tech. Not as great as your bro's school, but it'll do._

"Don't tell me," Hiro grumbled. He looked at the brochure he grabbed before leaving the office and groaned. There, on the second page: _Highest acceptance rates to colleges such as San Fransokyo Institution of Technology, for best robotics students in high school levels. We pride ourselves in our robotics programs-_

"Just my luck," Hiro groaned. "The high school that accepted me just happens to be a robotics school. Why am I not surprised."

 _I don't know what you're complaining about, this is great_ , Penny giggled excitedly. _Now I can experience high school with you!_

"No thanks," Hiro snorted. "Seeing you in my dreams is bad enough. I don't need you in my head during the day too."

"Who are you talking to, weirdo?"

For the second time that morning, Hiro jumped back, surprised yet again by another person. Slightly annoyed, Hiro grumbled, "What's it to you?"

"Well, sorry for being curious," a female voice said angrily, "It's just kinda weird that you're just sitting here talkin' to yourself."

Hiro looked up, annoyed, to see a short girl (about his height) with long hair tied back in a ponytail, a light blue hoodie, a skirt and striped blue and white tights underneath. Her black army boots clomped on the floor as she stamped her foot in irritation.

"Look, I'm sorry," Hiro sighed. "It's just, I'm about to start my first class today, and it's just kinda weird, and-"

"Whoa, whoa, chatterbox, I don't need ta know your whole life story," the girl snorted. "The names Vanellope. Do you have Yaka as HR teach?"

"If by 'Yaka' you mean Yakashima, then yeah, I have him," Hiro said slowly.

"Yeah, great, wonderful," she said distractedly. "Here, just… come in and sit next to me, 'kay? The seat's empty anyways. But don't talk to yourself, alright? You already look like a goofball, don't need ta act all kooky."

"Listen-" Hiro began angrily, but was cut off when the girl grabbed his arm and dragged him into the room. She abruptly sat him down, then proceeded to take the seat next to him. Just as he was going to get up and confront her, the bell rang. Taken by surprise, Hiro slouched down lower into his new seat as a swarm of kids walked into the room. He could already see the circles, the clicks within the class. There were, of course, the cheerleaders and jocks, laughing annoyingly loudly in the front of the room. Then there were the geeks, sitting in the corner, gushing about the new release of some web series. And of course, the nerds, who sat in the back, no doubt studying for a test they were probably going to pass anyways. The only thing he found odd was, in all the circles he saw, none of them included the girl that dragged him into class. He looked at her curiously. She merely sniffed and looked away.

The second bell rang, signaling the beginning of class. Mr. Yakashima walked in and snapped his fingers repeatedly. "Alright, gang, you heard the bell. Now sit down so we can begin."

The loud talking slowly died down to idle whispers as the groups dispersed. To Hiro's surprise, Vanellope wasn't lying when she said the seat was empty. No one came over demanding him for his seat.

"Alright, class, I have a very special announcement to make," Mr. Yakashima began as everyone settled down. "I'd like to introduce our newest addition to the team-" Hiro ducked down, hoping to disappear from the spot. He could hear Peniel cackling in his head, and he repeatedly hissed at her to shut up. "He's coming to us from home school, so everyone be nice and show him how our public education works-" A few heads turned, looking at him quizzically. Several rolled their eyes and went back to secretly texting underneath the table. "He's very smart, joining us at the ripe age of 10-year-old-" a few derisive chuckles echoed around him. He even heard a few people whisper "nerd" and "brainiac." Slouching down so low that he was sure he would slide down to the floor, Hiro crossed his fingers and prayed his teacher would stop with the long introduction. "I'd like you all to welcome, Hiro Hamada."

Silence. All head turned to look at the new meat. Hiro could feel their gaze piercing through him. Smiling sheepishly, he hoarsely whispered, "Hi…"

"Aww, he's shy," Mr. Yakashima said cheerfully. "Why don't you stand up and tell us a little something about yourself, son."

Hesitantly, he stood up, grimacing as his chair scraped across the floor. He cleared his throat and said, "Umm…. I'm Hiro, and-"

"Hero? My dog's name is Hero," a kid interjected. The entire room burst out into laughter. Hiro's face flushed tomato red and he quickly sat down, burying his face into his arms. God, he wanted to go home. Peniel was not helping as she rolled around, cackling "Hero" and "dog" repeatedly. Vanellope threw him a quick sympathetic glance, and he was relieved to see that at least she wasn't laughing.

"Now, Hans, that was unnecessary," Mr. Yakashima said harshly. Hiro stayed quiet as the rest of his class continued laughing. He groaned as his teacher flustered around, trying to get his students to quiet down. It was gonna be a long day.

* * *

"Tadashi, watch out!"

"Huh?" Tadashi snapped out of his daze just as the beaker he had no idea he was holding exploded out burning green foam. "Ow!" The foam steamed and burned his arm on contact. He dropped the beaker in pain, holding on to his newly burned arm. The beaker shattered, sending burning foam flying in all direction. Lab students ran around, screaming as the foam landed on their exposed skin. Someone, luckily, had pulled the alarm. Emergency shower stalls popped up, ready for use. Somebody grabbed Tadashi and dragged him hurriedly to the showers. Running his arm under the chemical bath, the same person took his uninjured hand and guided him to his office.

Walking in, he quickly muttered "ow," activating Baymax. His robotics project blinked, quickly scanning his new patient.

"What happened out there?" his mystery savior demanded. "You're usually never that spaced out. And what were you doing around my chemicals?"

Looking up wearily, he sighed as Baymax sprayed anesthetics over his burned arm. "Hey, Honey Lemon."

"Hey," she replied briskly. "Explain. _Now_."

"Sorry, I was just… not paying attention…"

"Yea, you can say that again," she snapped. "What were thinking? You could've burned down the lab! Or hurt yourself even worse than just a burned arm!"

"I know, I know," Tadashi sighed as Baymax wrapped bandages around his arm. "It's just… Hiro's in school right now… and…"

"Ahh." All of Honey Lemon's anger dissipated. "You're worried about what might happen." Not a question, a statement.

"Yea," Tadashi sighed. "I don't know, Honey, I mean, what if the other kids pick on him? Or if something happens, like a earthquake, or if a meteor crashes right on his school and crushes them and-"

"Tadashi, Tadashi," Honey Lemon soothed. "He'll be _fine_. Stop worrying, he's a big boy!"

"But-"

"Stop," Honey said forcefully. "If anything happens, I'm sure you'll be the first person he calls. Now relax! Stop blowing things up in my lab."

"B-but-"

"Tadashi, stop," she commanded. "You're overthinking! Just breath, he'll be _fine_."

"Tadashi, I have finished treating your injury," Baymax said. "I recommend taking a pain killer and taking a nap."

"Listen to your project, Tadashi, stop worrying," Honey huffed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go clean up the mess you made."

"Sorry again, Honey," Tadashi smiled sheepishly. She huffed and walked out the room.

 _Relax_ , he repeated in his head. Rummaging through his drawers for painkillers and quickly saying "I am satisfied with my care" to Baymax, he collapsed on his couch with a sigh. _Just relax…_

* * *

"Hey, puppy," some kid snorted, throwing out his elbow to nudge Hiro's shoulder. Hiro flinched and dodged, quickly walking down the hall to his new locker. News of his name matching with a dog's travelled fast. After his first class, as soon as he left the room, almost all the kids snickered and whispered "puppy" and "doggy". Even as he walked in the hallways, the crowds parted and stared as he walked by, some jeering at him to "go back to preschool."

Reaching his locker, he sighed and unlocked the lock. Emptying his new load of textbooks into the metal cabinet, he yelped in surprise when somebody grabbed his hood and yanked him back.

"Hey, nerd," a burly voice snorted. "So, you're a genius, huh?"

Hiro sighed. _Great_ , he thought, _first day and I'm already public enemy number 1._ "Yea, so what?" he replied haughtily.

"So, I'm in a bit of trouble, that's what." Charles "Chucky" Travis, son to some big shot businessman, stereotypical captain of the football team and known bully. While he was in class, Peniel got bored and hacked the school's computer system and read the files of every student in the school. It was a headache for Hiro, but it was better than sitting through a lecture on plant cells (which he had already learned when he was 6.)

"So? What do you want me to do?" Hiro grumbled. He was tired, and he didn't want to deal with bullies on the very first day.

"Wow, you have a lot of lip for such a small guy, huh," Chucky balled his fists up. Hiro sighed and closed his eyes.

"Hey, hey, break it up!" a familiar female voice cut in. "Jesus, Chuck, do you really need another mark on your record? Won't daddy take away that fancy Porsche again?"

"Ugh, it's the freak," Chuck sneered in disgust. "How perfect, a freak and her dog." He let Hiro go, muttering, "not worth it" as he stalked away.

"You okay, kid," Vanellope asked, helping Hiro up.

"Yea, I'm fine," Hiro sighed, gratefully accepting her hand.

"Don't mind him, he's just a big guy that thinks he can get everything cuz he's big and he has money," Vanellope huffed. "Without daddy's money, he's nothing."

"Yea, well, thanks," Hiro sighed. "I should get going to my next class." The hallway had cleared already, a few stragglers rushing away before they get marked tardy. He tried not to groan out loud when Vanellope followed him.

"What's your next class?"

"Calculus with Burns," Hiro said impatiently.

"Wow, you're in calc? And you're a freshie?" Vanellope looked at him in amazement. "You really are a genius."

"Yea, I am, thanks for the compliment," Hiro muttered. "Now, if you'll excuse me."

"Bye," she said quietly as he walked away.

 _You don't have to be so snappy, you know,_ Peniel chastised him as he walked into the room. After getting his waiver signed, he chose a seat in the far back, next to the window. People stared at him as he walked back, several still snickering "dog." Sighing for the hundredth time that day, Hiro slumped down and put his head in his arms.

"I know," he muttered low enough that even the person sitting next to him couldn't hear. "It's been a long day." After the brief call with Tadashi between his break and his class, Hiro missed home even more.

 _You've only been to three classes, maybe things will get better_ , Peniel said encouragingly.

"That's the first time you've ever said something nice," Hiro chuckled.

 _You're rubbing off on me_ , Peniel replied sourly. _She's just trying to be nice_.

"I know," Hiro murmured. "I'll apologize after school, alright?"

Peniel said nothing as his teacher began his class.

* * *

"Tadashi, it's 2:30."

"Alright, thanks Wasabi."

"No problem, man," Wasabi looked up from the group project the two of them were working on. Well, it was more what he was working on. Tadashi's newly injured arm made him close to useless. He sheepishly read of instructions as Wasabi weld together pieces of metals together. "After you pick up Hiro, rest up that arm, okay?"

"Got it," Tadashi said hurriedly, carefully slipping his arm through his blazer. Tell Gogo and Fred I left, 'kay?" His speedy friend was testing her bike again, this time finally letting Fred join her. Tadashi was pretty sure she only said yes because she was hoping something would happen and make him stop bugging her.

"Got it," Wasabi's muffled voice replied from behind his welder's mask. "Tell Hiro we said hi."

"Yup," Tadashi picked up his bag and pocketed his keys. "Bye, Honey!" he called out as he walked towards the lab doors.

"Bye, Tadashi!" Honey Lemon squealed back. She was still sorting out the chaos that had ensued after Tadashi dropped the chemicals earlier that day. A rather nasty looking green stain was left on the floor (thank god Tadashi was only burned with no green chemicals left on his skin). She was still looking for pieces of technology that might have come in contact with the chemical. They needed to get them quarantined immediately.

"Sorry, again," Tadashi grimaced. "I'll be more careful next time."

"No, _next_ time," Honey replied sourly, "you're getting nowhere _near_ my chemicals."

"Yes ma'am," Tadashi laughed, waving goodbye as he left the lab.

Just as he got to the truck, his phone rang. Quickly dumping his bags on the seat, he fished out his phone with his left hand (at least he hadn't burned his dominant hand) and answered. "Hello?"

"Hey, Tadashi," Hiro spoke back. "We got out a little early cuz my last class had a sub."

"I'm on my way now, buddy," Tadashi replied cheerfully. "How was your first day?"

Silence. Tadashi could almost hear the shrug that Hiro probably did. Tadashi sighed and said, "Right… well, tell me more when I pick you up, okay?"

"Sure," Hiro whispered. "See you later, nii-chan."

"Bye," Tadashi said with forced cheeriness. As soon as Hiro hung up, his smile dropped. Hiro only called him nii-chan when something really bad happened. When he needed to revert back to a child and not some prodigy. Sighing, he awkwardly started the truck with his left hand. He didn't want to keep his brother waiting anymore than he already had.

* * *

As soon as Tadashi hung up, Hiro sighed and walked out of his hiding spot behind a tree in the front of his school. The yard was bustling with students that either got out early or just ditching class. Shouldering his backpack, he carefully walked to the curb, careful to keep his head down so no one would notice him. Aside from a few "puppy" remarks, Hiro managed to make it without drawing too much attention to himself.

"Hey, nerd," a familiar voice spoke from behind him, then plopped down by his side.

"Ugh, it's you," Hiro groaned, not even bothering to act nice. "What do you want."

"Sorry about your first day," Vanellope said sympathetically. "It'll get better after people get tired of the new kid."

"Yeah, well-"

"Hey, freak."

Sighing in annoyance, Hiro turned, expecting to see another group of people coming to pick on him. It was a posse of students from his class, part of the popular kids side. The blonde girl in pink was obviously the ringleader. The rest of her entourage looked as nasty as she did. To his surprised, the group of girls that showed up behind him and Vanellope didn't even acknowledge his existence. They were all staring intently at Vanellope.

"Saw you drag the puppy into class today. Did you think you could find a friend or something?" the blonde girl asked snobbishly. He backup laughed as if she had said the funniest thing in the world.

Vanellope, to Hiro's greatest surprise, ignored them and stood, grabbing Hiro's arm and muttering, "Let's go."

Even as they hurried away, Hiro could still hear them mocking Vanellope. And although he had only known her for a day, hearing them tease her made his blood boil. "Why do you let them say that stuff to you?" he asked angrily.

She didn't say anything. When she finally spoke, she quietly whispered, "Confession time. I was hoping that if they saw me with someone they'd stop picking on me. Sorry for using you, kid. You don't have to talk with me anymore."

"Well, I want to talk with you," Hiro said stubbornly, crossing his arms. "I mean, we're friends, aren't we?"

Hiro didn't know what was more shocking, what he had just said or the expression on Vanellope's face. "I-I guess," she stuttered. "Are you sure though? I mean, they'll pick on you too if they keep seeing you with me."

"It's fine, I can take care of myself," Hiro reassured her. "Now, what's up with blondie and her posse?"

"Taffyta," Vanellope said sourly. "She thinks that just cuz she's captain of the cheerleading team and her family is all country clubs and brunches, she can treat everyone else around her like dirt. Crumbelina and Rancis used to be okay," Vanellope sighed wistfully. "Before they decided they wanted in with the rich life."

"So why do they pick on you?"

"Cuz I'm a foster kid," Vanellope said matter-of-factly. "And cuz I have a slight medical condition. These and a bunch of other stuff that make me different. Taffyta does _not_ like different."

"Well, that's stupid," Hiro wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Just cuz you're weird doesn't mean they should be mean."

Vanellope smirked. "You're one to talk, dork. Watch out or you'll end up at the top of Chuck's list of geeks to smack around."

A horn beeped, catching their attention. Vanellope looked up and noticeably brightened up. "That's Ralph, my foster dad," she said excitedly, grabbing her bag and jumping up. "Gotta go, see ya tomorrow, kid!"

"Bye," Hiro waved halfheartedly at his new friend as she ran over to the small car. It was comical, really, to see such a giant man driving such a tiny car. But the amount of delight Vanellope had as she climbed in and chattered about her day made Hiro a little jealous. Sure, he had Tadashi, but that was different. He was his brother. Not a parent.

Right on cue, Hiro spotted a familiar truck pull up next to him. Said older brother had a goofy grin plastered across his face as he motioned for Hiro to get in. He rolled his eyes and grabbed his bag, gladly climbing into the vehicle. As he clipped in his seatbelt, he let out a sigh of relief at the familiarity of the truck. It was the most comforting thing he had seen all day.

"Tough day, huh," Tadashi said sympathetically as he tried to find the exit.

"Same to you," Hiro nodded at Tadashi's bandaged arm. "What'd you do, stick your arm in a fire?"

"Let's just say I'm banned from Honey's lab for a bit," Tadashi winced. "So how was your first day?"

"Fine… if you compare it to World War I," Hiro groaned. "I have an official nickname around campus."

"Is it nerd?" Tadashi asked jokingly. "Mr. No-filter? Ohh no I got it… Gummy bear master."

"Haha," Hiro said humorlessly, although he did appreciate Tadashi trying to make him feel better. "Apparently some kid in my class has a dog named Hero."

"Ahh," Tadashi said knowingly. "I'd give you the whole speech of what your name means and all, but I'm pretty sure you know by now."

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Hiro said absentmindedly. Of course, before they had died, their parents had drilled into their heads that Hiro's name meant generosity and Tadashi's meant loyalty and faithfulness. Personally, Hiro thought Tadashi's sounded better, but Tadashi always laughed and said he thought Hiro's name suited him perfectly. "I made a friend though."

Tadashi couldn't hide his surprise. "That's great!" he said happily. "Name?"

"Vanellope," Hiro stared out the window. "She's weird."

"Sounds perfect for you," Tadashi laughed. "Anything else eventful?"

Hiro considered telling him about daddy's boy Chuck, or valley girl Taffyta, but ultimately decided, "They served lasagna for lunch."

"Wow, that's some really exciting news," Tadashi said sarcastically. "We should get that printed and put as headlines for the whole city to hear." He pulled into the garage, turning off the engine. "Wanna order out tonight? Can't really cook with this arm."

"Sure," Hiro replied. "Pizza or Chinese?"

"Pizza," Tadashi said as he opened the door to the house. "With extra pepperoni."

"Of course," Hiro laughed, taking off his shoes before walking into their home. "Drinks?"

"Sprite."

"Got it," Hiro bounced over to their landline, ready to push the day behind him. _Besides_ , he thought darkly as he picked up the phone, _there's more to look forward to tomorrow._

* * *

 _Overall, I'd say today was great._

"What do you know, you were asleep for more than half of it," Hiro mumbled as Peniel floated around him. Peniel had decided, halfway through his third class, that school was boring and took a nap. All the way till the end of the day, when Tadashi picked him up.

 _I mean, sure they called you a dog_ -Hiro winced- _and you almost got shoved into a locker, but hey, you made a friend! That's gotta count for something._

"Sure," he snorted. "Cuz having another weirdo as a friend will make it all better." Thankfully, the assignments he got from his teachers were easy and he finished in under an hour. Climbing into bed, he passed out before Tadashi even walked into the room.

Peniel studied him carefully, then sighed. _No practice today_ , she said. _You should actually get some sleep._ With a snap of her fingers, his bed appeared in the empty space they occupied.

Hiro gaped. "Wow, I'm _really_ rubbing off on you." Hiro mumbled. "What's up, why are you being so nice today?"

Peniel shrugged. _I don't know… I just have this uneasy feeling, like something's gonna happen, you know?_

"Not really," Hiro confessed, climbing into the bed and snuggling in comfortably.

 _Whatever, nerd. Just go to sleep._

"Goodnight," Hiro mumbled sleepily. A few minutes after she disappeared, he groggily slurred, "… thanks…"

* * *

The dark figure whistled, walking down the street with his hands in his pocket. His first kill was a success. A quick little snack before going for the big game.

Just as he began contemplating where to eat next, as though destined by fate, a grumbling woman with her jacket wrapped up tightly around her body briskly walked past him. Smiling, he casually turned and followed her down the street.

 _Bon appétit._

* * *

 **I'm taking names and characters from any cartoons or movies so if you have any requested characters, be sure to comment ;)**

 **Here's my extra long update as an apology ^^" again, super sorry guys...**

 **Anyways, you know the drill LOL. Comment, favorite, follow, the usual :)**


	7. Chapter 7: Bad Luck

**SO SORRY YOU GUYS**

 **I got a new laptop but stupidly forgot to backup my stories TvT**

 **I actually had a bunch of chapters for this one and Other Worlds ready then lost ALL OF IT in one night**

 **BUT IT'S OK, I MANAGED TO RECOVER/REMEMBER ENOUGH STUFF TO UPDATE**

 **All the other stories will be updated soon as well~**

 **Merry Christmas, everyone!**

* * *

Chapter 7: Bad Luck

"Hey, weird kid."

Hiro didn't have to look up to see who it was. Chewing on his bland lunch, he mumbled, "Hey, Vanellope."

It had been a full week since he started school. Thankfully, the sniggers and derisive laughs died down eventually, but Hiro was still "the new kid." Most of the kids at this school went to middle school together. All of them were friends already. Hiro could recognize a few kids that were in his other classes, but at most they were acquaintances. His only real "friend" was Vanellope.

Said friend plopped down across from him, pulling out her own lunch. Hiro came to realize that most of the people at the school avoided her. Probably to hide from Taffyta's wrath, Hiro really didn't know.

"So how was your first week?" Vanellope mumbled through her sandwich. "Make any other weirdo friends to join our loner table?"

"Not really," Hiro shrugged. "There are these twins in my history class who are pretty weird, but they kinda just hang around each other."

"The Pines?" Vanellop swallowed. "Oh, you don't wanna mess with them."

"Why, what's wrong with them, they seem nice."

"They are," she started carefully, "but they kinda only keep to themselves. I heard they have this weirdo uncle they go visit every summer and a buncha weird stuff goes down if you mess with either of 'em."

"Understandable," Hiro waved off her concerns. "I mean they _are_ twins. They've been together since forever."

"Well, if you wanna risk it, ask them to hang out," Vanellope shrugged. "But they probably won't wanna. Like I said, they kinda just keep to themselves." She dug through her backpack and pulled out a wrinkly paper. Hiro could see red marks scattered across the sheet. "Can you help me with this problem? I can't figure out what I did wrong, man…"

* * *

After school ended, Hiro and Vanellope sat under the shade of a tree by the entrance, waiting for their guardians to pick them up. They chatted occasionally about how their day was, laughing at inside jokes. Hiro was slightly surprised about how natural it had all felt, like he was just a normal kid. It felt… nice.

His phone vibrated, prompting him to glance down. "Great," he muttered, scowling at the screen. It was a text from Tadashi.

 _Hey bud, sorry, some stuff came up. Trouble at the lab. Might take a while. Walk home if you don't wanna wait there for hours. Sorry! I'll bring back some food with the gang later._

"This is great," Hiro sighed, standing up. "Sorry, Vanellope, I'm walking back today. Tadashi's gonna be late."

"No problem," Vanellope shrugged. "Ralph is here anyways. See you tomorrow, nerd!"

Waving goodbye, Hiro shouldered his backpack and walked toward the main gate. His home wasn't far from school, only a few blocks down. Tadashi only insisted on driving him as a safety hazard ("What if you get attacked, or kidnapped!"). Of course, in emergency situations, Tadashi would be fine with him walking back alone. He just had to make sure there was enough sunlight out, and always had to have his phone ready.

Personally, Hiro liked walking home. It was relaxing. He could forget everything and think on his own. He could look around and observe the neighborhood however he liked to. The walk also gave him a twenty to thirty minute window where Peniel couldn't intrude in his thoughts. Sure, driving had a window too, but it wasn't as long.

Speaking of which, Peniel had been uncharacteristically quiet the whole day. Usually she was nonstop yammering the whole day, mostly about pointless stuff that ended up giving Hiro a headache. Today, she didn't even pop up. Not even once.

Hiro sighed and crossed the street, making sure to check both ways first. He passed the grocers at the corner, waving at the old man that was sweeping out in the front. So far, Hiro's had to walk back home three times, and every time he walked down that particular block, the old man was always there. The grocer smiled and waved back. He was nice, in the quiet elderly way. One time he had offered Hiro some snacks, which Hiro had to politely decline. After all, Tadashi would be furious if he ruined his appetite.

After he passed the grocer, he looked over and smiled at the café that was a few doors down. It was a peaceful little café, very quaint. It looked like a place a guy would take a girl on a date if he wanted it to be private. Whenever Hiro walked by, there would be a few people there, mostly college students freeloading off the free wifi and low priced drinks and snacks. It kind of reminded him of his aunt's old café, which always made him a little sad. He had to remind himself to bring Tadashi and the gang over some day, for the memories. He also wanted to use it as an excuse to move on. Of course, he hadn't been conscious when his aunt took her final breaths, and never really got over it. Maybe if he went to a similar café, or actually went back to his old home, he could find some closure. However, since the old home burned down and was still in disarray, going back wasn't really an option.

After passing a few more small restaurants, Hiro gripped the straps of his backpack tighter. He was passing the shady area of town. The area that he and Tadashi jokingly called "the Dark Side." Luckily, there were usually no people around, but graffiti and vulgar drawings littered the brick walls. It was like walking from Happyville straight into the back alley of New Yosaka. He had heard that there were plenty of illegal botfights that took place in the shadows at night. It was a goal of his to go to one of these fights, maybe even fight in some, but he knew Tadashi would have a fit.

Just as he passed a particularly dark alley, a rustle caught his attention. Freezing like a deer caught in headlights, he slowly turned his head to look over. Unsurprisingly, the shadows covered up everything. All he could see was shadowed figures in the gloom.

Swallowing nervously, he clenched the phone in his pocket tightly. _Don't do it_ , a little voice in his head (that wasn't Peniel) hissed _. This is how idiots in horror movies die, they check out the noise. Don't go towards the noise!_

Hiro knew the voice was right, but curiosity got the best of him. Pulling out his phone (unsure of why, he couldn't really use it as a weapon), he slowly crept into the dark alley. Hiding behind the large dumpster, he gradually moved his head out, trying to peer behind it. He saw nothing. Again, no surpise.

Reaching over next to him, he cautiously grabbed a pole that was propped against the wall. It was a mop. Not exactly the most terrifying weapon, but it would have to do. Carefully, he snuck out from his hiding spot, mop clenched and ready to hit someone, or _something_.

Everything was still dark, and he could see nothing. He wasn't sure if his fear driven mind was imagining it or not, but he swore he saw a pair of beady dark eyes glaring at him through the shadows. Hurriedly grabbing his phone, he turned it on, hoping the light of his screen would light a way through the dark.

What he saw was surprising to say the least.

For one part, he was right about seeing eyes. But they weren't glaring at him. They were staring at him, lifeless. Dead.

The body of a young woman, her dried blood encrusted around multiple stab wounds, laid among the trash bags scattered through the alley.

Hiro stumbled back, dropping his mop in surprise. Shakily dialing the number into his phone, he swallowed, unable to look away from the dead gaze of this unfortunate woman.

"San Fransokyo Police Department."

Hiro swallowed dryly once again, before hoarsely whispering, "You need to come quick. I just found a dead body."

* * *

Seeing the flashing red and blue lights of police sirens again was oddly nostalgic to him. Only this time, it wasn't raining. That made it slightly better, but only slightly.

At some point, someone had draped a blanket over his shoulders. He was still numb from shock and really didn't know what was going on. All he knew was that he was sitting in the back of an ambulance, the sky was bright and blue, the lights of the sirens were flashing wildly, caution tapes roped off the alleyway, people were starting to crowd around, hoping to get a view of what was going on, and a body.

The body.

It wasn't the blood that scared him. It wasn't the nasty looking stab wounds, or the fact that it had been in the middle of a dark alleyway.

It was her eyes.

The hopelessness in those pools was so deep you could drown in them.

A shudder went through his frame, the first movement he had done since the police arrived. A good twenty minutes ago.

Several policemen were going through the alleyway, looking for evidence, collecting testimonies. One kind lady had sympathetically tried to comfort him, then asked for his fingerprints to eliminate him as a suspect. Hiro remembered nodding numbly, still not able to process what he had just seen. Now that he thought about it, she was probably the one that covered him with the blanket. And why they would think a ten-year-old kid was capable of a murder so cruel was also befuddling.

A distant car door slammed shut followed by indignant yells. Hiro was still dazed, not really processing what was happening. Looking up, he was slightly surprised to see Tadashi in the crowd.

Angrily waving his uninjured arms and pointing at Hiro's direction.

The noises and actions around him slowly started matching up again. The obnoxious blaring of the police sirens rang through his numb head. The muttering wave of the crowd behind the caution tape seemed to be amplified, mixing in with the chaotic cacophony in his mind. Tadashi was screaming something that distinctly sounded like, "Listen, that's my brother!"

Apparently, Tadashi was actually really convincing, as he was suddenly weaving under the yellow tape and running over to Hiro's side. How a one-armed nerd with a gray cardigan could be threatening boggled Hiro.

"Hey," Tadashi jogged over to Hiro, enveloping him in a bone-crushing hug. He squatted down to get eye to eye with his little brother, carefully scanning his blank face. "You okay, buddy?"

"Yeah," Hiro said flatly, staring blankly back at his guardian. "Can we go home?"

Tadashi looked back unsurely, biting his lip nervously. "I'm not sure, bud," he muttered, looking back at the police officers that he had been arguing with him. "They might have a few more small questions they need you to answer… but as soon as they're done, we'll go."

Hiro sighed, letting his shoulders droop. After almost half an hour of not moving, his stiff muscles screamed in protest. All he really wanted to do was go home and sleep.

"Mr. Hamada?" a gruff voice growled. Both brothers looked up. "Some questions," the policeman grunted.

The officer looked almost bored as he yawned and scratched his elbow. He chewed on the end of his pen and looked down at his notes. "Says here you found the body?"

"That's right," Tadashi said protectively, "and he's probably really tired, and I'd appreciate it if-"

"Who're you?" the officer sneered, looking at Tadashi suspiciously.

"His brother," Tadashi said back coolly. "And I would like to take him home to rest please."

The officer still looked suspicious for some reason. He squinted at Tadashi's injured arm. "What happened to your arm, kid?"

Tadashi winced and turned his body slightly, hiding both Hiro and his arm. "A small accident at my school. Now if you don't mind, I'm taking my brother home."

"Don't leave town," the officer replied haughtily. If Tadashi weren't the kind-hearted person he was (and if he didn't have his injury) then he would've punched the guy in the face. Tadashi quickly ushered Hiro under the caution tape. Ignoring the shouts and curious inquiries from the crowd that had gathered, the brothers piled into the truck. Starting the car quickly, Tadashi drove away, not giving the paparazzi behind him a second glance.

* * *

"So," Tadashi started conversationally. The brothers were stuck in traffic, no doubt because of the police that was blocking off part of the street a few blocks behind them. "How do you feel?"

"Fine," Hiro replied flatly. Honestly, he didn't know how to feel. Logic dictated that he should be horrified and disgusted at what he saw. Common sense dictated that he should be freaking out and hyperventilating, screaming and crying his eyes out. Research dictated he should be shocked and experiencing posttraumatic stress.

And yet, he felt nothing. He felt absolutely unaffected, as if nothing had happened. He felt… blank.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tadashi asked gently. "If not me, then maybe a-"

"I'm not going in to a psychiatrist, Tadashi," Hiro snapped a little too harshly.

The rest of the ride home was in silence.

* * *

"Hungry for anything, bud?" Tadashi asked when they got home. He walked into the kitchen, opening the fridge to see what they could eat. "We've got leftover pizza from last night, or we could make spaghetti again…"

"Not hungry," Hiro sighed, already making his way to the stairs. "Just tired. I'm gonna go take a nap." Before Tadashi could reply, Hiro was already walking away. Tadashi heard the door click. Sighing, the older Hamada collapsed onto the couch, running his hand across his face. Today had to have been one of the longest days in existence.

First, he had to rush to his school after dropping Hiro off. He and Wasabi had finished their project already, but they were supposed to present it to Professor Callaghan that morning. Tadashi had burst through the door seconds before class started. He apologized profusely about making Wasabi test run the project without him, but his friend waved off his apologies and said it was fine.

At lunch, he was supposed to meet with some business CEO's to discuss the possibility of patenting Baymax. If they accepted his deal, Tadashi would no doubt become a very rich man. Every household would have their very own Baymax. There was no way anything could go wrong. That is, until he realized he left Baymax charging at home. Speeding home and grabbing the red case, he was pretty sure he would have gotten another ticket if that camping cop had been there again. Bursting into his office a few minutes before he was supposed to meet the CEO's, including the well-known Alistair Krei, Professor Callaghan had to inform him that something came up and their meeting was cancelled for some future date that would be told to him some other time. Translation: he might not even get to see them in the next year unless some time cleared up in their schedules.

Then, just as he was leaving to go pick up Hiro, he accidentally knocked over Gogo's giant cart full of discarded wheels, sending them rolling around the lab. The gang had to sacrifice going home early to pick them all up again. Gogo, unfortunately, was not as forgiving. She yelled at Tadashi for a good ten minutes before finally letting him go home. He had already texted Hiro that he was going to be late (while Fred was chasing after the runaway wheels a few minutes after he had knocked them over).

As he walked out of the lab and made his way to the truck, his phone rang. Not recognizing the number, he answered and politely said, "Tadashi Hamada speaking."

"Mr. Hamada? This is Detective Kyle Terry with SFPD. This is regarding an issue with your younger brother, Hiro…"

Then he was in the truck, rushing over to the location Detective Terry had told him about over the phone. Hiro had found a dead body? Of all the rotten luck the kid could have, why did he have to be that unlucky and stumble upon a dead body? Screeching to a halt, he pushed his way through the crowd that had gathered, ignoring the yells of protest. It was extremely out of his character, but he didn't care. He needed to see it with his own eyes.

They first thing he saw was Hiro. The kid was sitting in the back of the ambulance, staring blankly in front of him. No matter how much Tadashi waved his arm, he never blinked.

He managed to push his way to the front, and after arguing with the officer on scene, ducked under the caution tape and ran to his brother's side. After managing to convince the police to let them go (they were suspicious of _him_ of all people, as if he would kill somebody!), Tadashi ushered Hiro into the truck and drove away.

He was shocked out of his thoughts when he felt his phone vibrate. Answering without looking at the number, he tiredly said, "Tadashi Hamada speaking."

"Hamada?" Gogo said. "We heard on the news. How's the little guy doing?"

"Fine," Tadashi sighed. "Actually… honestly, I don't know. He won't talk to me, he won't even look at me…"

There was some scuffling on the opposite line, then a different voice said, "Maybe if you give him some time, let him have his personal space."

"I'll try, Honey," Tadashi laughed lightly. "But then again, figuring out this bonehead has never been easy."

"Tell him to cheer up!" a voice that sounded like Fred yelled from the background. "And that we'll be here if he needs anything!"

"Idiot, you can't just say 'cheer up' to someone who saw a dead body," Gogo hissed.

"Well, what else do you say?"

"I don't know, but not 'cheer up,' you bubble brained-"

"Okay, guys, I'll tell him you all said hi," Tadashi laughed. "He said he's taking a nap now, so I'll tell him as soon as he wakes up."

"Thanks." The phone was passed to Wasabi. "You get some rest too, okay? Don't strain yourself with that arm of yours."

"Got it," Tadashi stood and stretched his arm up, using his shoulder to hold the phone to his ear. "I'm gonna take a small nap, too, then. Call you guys later?"

"We'll call you," Gogo snorted. "Out for pizza later?"

"We'll see," Tadashi chuckled. "Later."

Hanging up, he made his way upstairs, following Hiro's last steps. Opening the door slowly, he peeked in to see if Hiro was actually asleep. The rising and falling of the lump in his bed and the soft snores said yes.

Quietly, Tadashi tiptoed to his side of the room, gently shutting the door behind him. Stretching out in the bed, he sighed and closed his eyes. It had been a seriously long day.

* * *

"Stop!" Hiro growled, waving his arms to dissipate the image in front of him. "I already saw it once, I don't need to see this again!"

"But this is the first time I've seen a dead body," Peniel whined. She waved her hand and made another mirage of the dead woman shimmered into view. "Why can't I look at it a little more?"

"Because it's disturbing and gross, and it's annoying!" Hiro hissed, turning his back to the girl and the dead woman. "Why are you so fascinated with this, anyways?"

"I'm just a girl in your head," Peniel whispered. "We both don't know where I came from, or why I'm even here. These small things just… kinda put that into perspective, ya know?"

"This isn't exactly a small thing," Hiro replied blankly. "And it's not exactly common to see a dead body."

"So why didn't you freak out?" Peniel questioned. "If it's not common, then why didn't you break down, or… go into shock, like how normal people would?"

"Well, I'm not exactly normal, seeing as I can control technology with my mind," Hiro snorted.

"Mhm," Peniel scoffed. "You know what I think?"

"Hm?"

"I think you _are_ scared," she accused. "I think you're just acting tough, cuz you don't want anyone to worry."

"Well, you might be right."

Peniel gawked at Hiro. "This is the first time you've actually agreed to something I've had to say."

Hiro shrugged. "We might not agree with everything, but there's no point hiding it. Sure, I'll admit that I'm scared. And sure, I'll admit that it's cuz I don't want everyone fussing over me."

"… But?"

"… But I can't tell you everything," Hiro concluded. "There are some things I'd rather keep to myself."

Peniel sniffed and crossed her arms. "I guess I can accept that," she finally sighed. She smirked and gloated, "I'll find out eventually, you know."

"No doubt you will," he murmured as she disappeared and he felt the familiar sensation of waking up.

* * *

Hiro woke up in a much greater mood than he was in when he fell asleep. He practically had to push Tadashi out of bed to get him to wake up. His older brother was dead to the world once he was asleep. After a very surprised Tadashi was finally awake (and not on the floor), he blurrily staggered to the door, mumbling something about pizza.

As they waited for the rest of the gang to come over with the promised boxes of pizza, Tadashi yawned and asked, "Feel like talking yet?"

Hiro shrugged, murmuring, "Not really." He pretended not to notice Tadashi slump down in disappointment. "Not yet," he corrected. "But I'll be sure to tell you first thing when I'm ready."

"Better than nothing, I suppose," Tadashi sighed. He grinned and gently knocked Hiro's head. "Just don't keep everything buried in that big brain of yours, alright? If you keep too much you'll explode."

"Thanks, doc, I'll keep that in mind," Hiro scoffed, getting up to answer the door. He could hear Fred crowing over the pizza from outside already.

"I can tell you one thing," Tadashi snickered, getting up as well to set the table. "You're gonna be the most popular kid in school tomorrow."

* * *

 **Again, sorry for all the delays with updates, I'm gonna MAKE SURE TO BACKUP MY CHAPTERS THIS TIME**

 **You guys know what to do *even after all this time oops***


	8. Chapter 8: New Friends

**I'm back~**

 **Anyone miss me? LOL**

* * *

Chapter 8: New Friends

Chiyeki made her way through the glass doors, waving hello to the familiar face at the reception desk. The man behind the table looked surprised. "Chiyeki?" he asked. "I haven't seen you in a while."

"Sorry, Frank, I went out of town for a bit," she sighed, grabbing a pen to sign her name on the sign in sheet. "How's she been?"

Frank shrugged. "The same," he replied. "She has her good days, but it depends really. You know how she is with those mood swings…"

"Don't I know it," Chiyeki muttered. "Well," she sighed, "I'll see you in a bit, I suppose."

"Same room," Frank called as she made her way through the metal doors and into the sanatorium.

Chiyeki walked through the empty hall, muscle memory taking her through the building. It was emptier than she remembered it. Most likely, many of the patients showed signs of mental improvement and were released.

Tomoe would never get that luxury.

After the trial, the judge had officially deemed her mentally ill, and instead of sentencing her to basically a lifetime in prison, she would be locked up in a mental asylum, never to see the light of day again. From what several sources had told her, she learned that her older sister had no intention of trying to get a possibly lesser sentence by getting good behavior points. She still acted high and mighty, looking down on anyone and everyone that treated her.

She reached the room she was looking for. Just as she was about to knock, two nurses walked by and noticed her. One nurse made a face and muttered, "Be careful. She's in one of her moods again."

"Noted," Chiyeki replied gratefully. There was no doubt Tomoe would be in an even worse mood, especially since she hadn't visited in almost a year.

Knocking lightly, she jumped back in surprise when she heard something collide with the door from the inside, then hearing Tomoe scream, "Oh, for crying out loud, just come in, you wretched low lives!"

The nurses looked at each other, then threw sympathetic glances at Chiyeki. The woman sighed and slowly opened the door.

* * *

"So, is it true?"

"You're the fifth person to ask me today, Vanellope, and the answer is still yes."

"Sorry," his friend sighed in frustration. "It's just it's kinda big news that you found a dead lady. Especially since that serial killer escaped…"

"Yeah, the cops say this is his first kill since he escaped," Hiro said absentmindedly, flipping through his notebook to quickly review (not that he needed it) before the in class quiz on _All Quiet on the Western Front_. Truthfully, he had read it already when Tadashi was still in high school. His brother had fell asleep with the book dangling from his hand, and four year old Hiro was bored and out of books to read (their parents had just died and he already finished reading all the books Aunt Cass got for him). So, doing what any bored infant would do, he gently pried the open book from Tadashi's hand and began reading. Two hours later, Tadashi jolted awake and saw Hiro finishing up the last chapter of a high school leveled novel.

"That's pretty scary man," Vanellope shuddered. "Ralph said that the sicko kills kids and adults. And that he doesn't feel bad for killing them either."

"I can't speak for a serial killer," Hiro shrugged, closing his notebook as the teacher walked into class. "But Tadashi said the same thing. He told me that this guy has a bunch of connections and stuff, and that was how he escaped so easily."

"I heard that he's actually an ex-mafia member, and that he was an assassin that double crossed his boss, which is how he lost an eye."

"Really?" Hiro raised an eyebrow in surprise. That was one rumor he had never heard before. "Who said that?"

Vanellope shrugged. "Just some kids talking. Overheard them when I was getting my stuff from the lockers.

"Huh…" Hiro looked forward as the teacher greeted the class. "Well, whatever he is, I'm pretty sure he's not our problem, I mean, as long as we listen to what they said on the news, we should be fine."

"I guess," Vanellope sighed. "But aren't you a bit curious?"

"No," Hiro replied immediately. He already went through one life-altering event, he didn't need another.

Vanellope jokingly looked at him with an offended look on her face. "No sense of adventure," she teased.

"I like staying alive, thanks," Hiro replied flatly.

"Yeah, you're right I guess," Vanellope snickered. "But the thought of going on some epic adventure… catching a bad guy… doesn't that seem kinda cool?"

Hiro didn't say anything as the person in front of him passed back the quiz.

* * *

"So, how have you been _, onee-sama_?"

"What do you want, Chiyeki?" Tomoe spat out viciously, tossing her name out like it was poison. "Come to laugh at me after being in this crazy home for four years?"

"You know that's not why I'm here, _nee-sama_ ," Chiyeki sighed. Four years in a sanatorium and she was still as rude as ever.

"Hmph," Tomoe huffed, crossing her arm angrily. To say the least, Tomoe's room was huge for a hospital (probably from her ex-husband, he didn't exactly cut off all connections with her, why he didn't was a mystery to Chiyeki). Her room was the size of a king's suite, the walls pure white and large windows on one side of the wall. The only sign that showed she was in a mental asylum was the lack of furniture, equipment and the bars across the windows. She had her room modified to look like a little girl's dream. A large bed filled up almost half the room with plush cushions and mountains of stuffed animals piled high. Chiyeki could see some of the stuffed animals were the ones she brought from her past visits. She used to bring a new teddy bear each time she went to see her older sister. She wasn't sure if she was touched that Tomoe even bothered keeping the plushies.

No matter how you looked at it, the pure white room was changed to look like a somewhat subtle padded room. Tomoe was one straight jacket away from looking like a cliché mental patient.

"So, what brings you to visit your poor, insane sister, girly?" Tomoe snarled scathingly. There was a small coffee table with two seats, Tomoe in one and Chiyeki sitting across from her in the other. There was no tea in front of them (no doubt because the nurses and doctors were afraid she would toss the scalding tea at her visitors, which knowing Tomoe, she would probably do).

"They said you lost your mind when you lost everything else," Chiyeki mumbled, half to herself. "When you lost your power and control, the shock was so much that your mind went with it."

"Idiot," Tomoe snorted. "Do you think I'm crazy?"

"No," Chiyeki muttered. She glared at her older half sister and hissed, "I think you were crazy from the start."

Tomoe didn't say anything. She merely glared back coldly, then growled. "What. Do. You. _Want_."

"Information," Chiyeki pressed. "I still haven't found those missing researchers, and _you_ handled all their files when you were still working on that ridiculous New Life plan."

"Don't call it ridiculous if it actually worked," Tomoe scoffed, turning her head to the side. In Chiyeki's mind, it was like negotiating with a five year old, slow and getting nowhere.

"It only worked cuz you kidnapped a kid into doing what you wanted," Chiyeki retorted.

"Speaking of which, how are Hiro-kun and Tadashi-kun? Haven't heard much big news on the prodigy brothers," Tomoe suddenly cooed, voice sickeningly oversweet. She sounded like a cat that had just caught a particularly juicy prey.

"They're fine," the younger woman snapped back. She would rather not involve her friends in this case. After all, they had already gone through enough mess with her involved. "Don't change the subject."

"How about this," Tomoe snarled, standing up suddenly. "I'll help you with your little research project, _if_ you do me a favor."

"Depends," Chiyeki replied warily. She knew from past experience that a favor in Tomoe's book was never anything good for the rest of society.

"Tell that useless, fat judge to get off his lazy ass," she hissed, leaning in threateningly with each word, "and get me out of this godforsaken loony bin!"

"No way," Chiyeki said firmly, refusing to be intimidated. "You got what you deserved. Lifetime here with no chance of parole. There's no way I'm letting you out."

"Fine," Tomoe huffed, dramatically spinning around to face the opposite wall. "But just saying, I know something that could possibly _save_ more worthless lives," she sang, turning slightly to gauge Chiyeki's reaction.

She didn't take the bait. "Nice try, _sister_ ," she scoffed derisively. "I know all your tricks, and they're not gonna fool me."

"You may think you know me, _little sister_ ," Tomoe hissed, fury blazing around her entire being. "But you know _nothing_ about me."

"That may be," Chiyeki snapped back, standing up abruptly. "But I personally think that's a good thing."

Tomoe turned, glaring daggers at the younger woman. "Get out," she rasped. "Get out!"

Chiyeki didn't need to be told twice. She turned and walked out the door quickly, not giving her sister a second glance. From the sound of her voice, she knew that if she didn't leave soon, Tomoe would start throwing the chairs if she had to. The one thing that would always be constant with her is her extreme temper tantrums. It could take hours before she calms down again. Giving the nurses a quick warning for their troubling task at hand, Chiyeki bid them all good luck before walking back out the metal door.

"Was she that bad, you were only in there for a few minutes," Frank commented as Chiyeki signed out.

"As bad as always," she sighed, putting the pen down with more force than necessary. "Thanks, Frank," she smiled halfheartedly. "I'll see you soon."

* * *

"Hey nerd."

Hiro sighed, looking up cautiously from his sandwich. He had aced the quiz (naturally), went through his other classes, no problems, and met up with Vanellope for lunch. She excused herself for a bit to go buy lunch (usually, her foster dad packed it for her, but for some reason she didn't have lunch from home today), and while she was gone, Chuck decided to show up again.

Overall, he had to say that Chuck wasn't that annoying. Sure, if he ever accidentally stepped in the bigger boy's way, he would roughly shove Hiro towards the lockers, making his arm hurt for a good portion of the day. However, after closer observation, Hiro saw that everyone received the same treatment, and that he wasn't being singled out or anything. He didn't know why, but the thought of not being the number one priority on a bully's list made him really relieved.

Until today.

"Can I help you, Chuck?" Hiro asked pleasantly, putting his meal down slowly. There was no way Chuck would let him get away with eating while he spoke. That was just asking for a beating. Pity, he was really looking forward to eating that turkey sandwich…

"Heard you found a dead chick yesterday," he mumbled lowly. Looking around warily, as though he would suffer eternal embarrassment and humiliation if anyone saw him talking to Hiro, he mumbled, "What was it like?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Hiro hissed exasperatedly. After a day of having every person on campus pull him out of the crowd to ask the same question, he was starting to get annoyed. Even seniors that he had never talked with before stopped him on the way to class to ask him. There was one guy, the "delinquent" of the school, who was especially curious. As Hiro recounted his story for the millionth time, the snowy haired boy clung onto every word with wonder and curiosity. Vanellope later told him that the boy was high school sophomore Jack Frost, an infamous trickster who was in detention more than he was in class. Although girls swooned when he flashed his pearly whites at them, the teachers disapproved of his carefree attitude. From what Vanellope heard from rumors, only one teacher, a school counselor, was able to keep him in school. Because of Mr. Mim, Jack was going to his classes rather than facing expulsion. Vanellope also told him that he was "unofficially" part of the school council as a punishment for ditching one too many classes. The teachers apparently hoped some time with the responsible, studious kids would make him be more like them. Hiro honestly wanted to know more about the guy. He seemed nice enough.

Chuck, on the other hand, was someone he didn't want to get involved with, _ever_.

Said person's face turned red and he snarled, "Don't get snappy with me, kid." He looked like he was using every ounce of willpower to not grab the younger child and punch him in the face. "I just wanted to say… I'm sorry for what you're going through."

Hiro blinked. Wow. He was not expecting that. Not at all. Especially not from a guy like Chuck, with his bullying reputation.

"Um," he mumbled in surprise. "Thanks." _I guess…_ "I appreciate it, really, but… it's nothing that bad, I wasn't that affected."

"Whatever," the jock snorted. Great. That split second of talking with someone other than the muscle head that was usually there was gone. "You better not tell anyone we had this conversation or I'm gonna pound you into tomorrow!"

"My lips are sealed," Hiro promised, making the act of zipping his lips and throwing out the key.

The bigger boy gave him one last threatening glare before turning and stalking back to his table. He was instantly greeted with cheers, high-fives and claps on the back from the rest of the cool kids.

"What was that all about?" Vanellope asked curiously as she slumped down next to him. "Why's Chucky over at our table?" Why was everybody interrupting his time with this perfectly delicious turkey sandwich?

"He was passing his condolences," Hiro shrugged, determined to finish at least half of his meal. "Said 'e was 'orry," he mumbled through a mouthful of his food.

"Huh," Vanellope huffed curiously. "The day Chuck decided to grow up." She shuddered. "It's so unlike him it's terrifying."

Hiro snorted and almost choked on his food. Playfully shoving Vanellope, he asked, "So what's up with lunch today?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you usually bring food from home," Hiro explained his observation as Vanellope poked at the slop on her plate that the school called a Sloppy Joe. "Are you trying to go on some epic adventure by trying school food and seeing if you get food poisoning? Cuz that's one way to go on that epic adventure you were talking about this morning."

"Haha, very funny," Vanellope snorted, shoving back at him. "No, it's… Ralph," she sighed. "Things have been kinda tight lately… The construction company he works for is demanding more hours or they're gonna fire him, they said. He was outta the house before I was even up this morning."

"Sounds tough," Hiro murmured sympathetically. "I'm sorry." If anyone knew anything about being alone in the mornings, he would. Even when his parents were still alive, they often left early in the morning to go to their mystery job, leaving Tadashi with a set of instructions on how to take care of Hiro. Of course, the older Hamada still had to go to school, so there were several days that he wouldn't even see his older brother until later in the evening. It was lonely, but he eventually got used to it.

"Don't be," Vanellope replied firmly. "I'm fine. We're fine. Ralph said it was just gonna be for a few weeks anyways. That little pinhead of a boss can't keep forcing him to clock in extra hours."

"I guess," Hiro shrugged, slowly biting into his apple (he finally finished the sandwich with no more interruptions.) Chewing thoughtfully, he mumbled, "Tell him I said good luck."

"I'll pass the message." Vanellope unenthusiastically poked her food for a bit, before excitedly turning to Hiro. "So I heard Jack Frost went to talk with you today, what's he like?!"

* * *

"Tadashi, sit down."

"Why!" The older Hamada threw his hand up in frustration. "I worked on this project with you guys, the least I can do is help you test it, too!"

"You read instructions from the manual, whoop-dee-freakin'-doo," Gogo said flatly. "And doctor's orders, no physical work until that arm heals up."

"That's bull," Tadashi scoffed, awkwardly crossing his arm across his chest. "I can't let you guys do all the work!"

"Tadashi, language!"

"Wow, Wasabi, from all that, all you do is tell me to watch my language," Tadashi said dryly. "Sorry, lemme just go wash out my mouth with soap."

"Sorry, Tadashi," Honey Lemon giggled. "You can watch and tell us what we're doing wrong," she said cheerfully, patting the dirty armchair that Fred usually lounged across. Their carefree friend was absent, probably either bothering other students or actually in class for a change. "I'm sure a pair of eyes from the side would be great help."

"Great," Tadashi replied sarcastically as he sank into the stained seat, wrinkling his nose as he looked at the pizza grease and soda spills over the cushion.

"Cheer up, man," Wasabi said happily as he strapped their deadly laser into it's holster, taking aim at the target across the room. "We'll go get lunch as soon as we're done here."

"Admit it, you're not whining cuz you can't help, you just wanna try out the laser," Gogo snickered as she passed out the protective lenses to her friends.

"Duh," Tadashi snorted, gratefully accepting the lenses and slipping them over her eyes. "This laser's supposed to pack enough of a punch to reach the moon, and I'm supposed to just watch?"

Wasabi rolled his eyes. Usually it was Fred that complained about not being allowed to test any of their projects. "You get first dibs when your arm heals."

"Awesome."

* * *

After lunch, Hiro learn a lot more about Jack Frost than he planned to. From the way Vanellope chattered on about him and the rest of the girls on campus acted around him, he was the high school heartthrob. However, with his busy schedule as an unofficial student council member and pulling pranks, the guy never seemed to notice.

After school ended, Vanellope rushed an apology, saying she had to leave. With Ralph working late, she had to run to the bus station before it left, and that was a good three blocks away. It was either that or walk the five miles home.

Hiro waved goodbye to his running friend halfheartedly. Tadashi had texted him, telling him to stay on campus till he got there. Since the whole found-a-dead-body incidence, Tadashi refused to let Hiro walk home, despite the younger's objections. Tadashi's last class usually ended at 3:00, unless he had to stay late to work on something at the lab. He didn't have to look at the clock to know what time it was. It was only 2:45, and if Tadashi had to stay a little longer, Hiro had a more than half an hour left until he would be home.

Peniel had gone silent for the first time since she appeared in his mind. Sure, at night she would still appear and help him learn to control his powers, but their sessions were shorter than before. She let him sleep to be awake enough for class the next day. However, when he was at school, she would disappear. Even now, when he closed his eyes and tried to find her, he couldn't. It was strange, and slightly unnatural. He had gotten used to hearing her nagging voice.

Deciding he might as well wait outside for his brother, he closed his locker and shouldered his backpack. Vanellope had to be halfway home by now. He made a mental note to message her later and ask if she was alright. He didn't need to check the news tomorrow and find out that his friend was missing, or worse…

He shuddered, shaking the image of the poor woman from his mind. He still didn't know how to react to such a shocking discovery. Tadashi said that he should talk with someone, if not him then a professional. He stubbornly insisted he was fine, but with everyone asking him today, it was the first thing he thought of when someone approached him, no doubt to ask him about his experience. While he didn't tell them all the details, every time he had to bring it up, the scene replayed itself in his head, clearer and more vivid each time.

Just as he opened the main doors, a mass of something cold fell over him, falling all over him and effectively snapping him out of his thoughts. Blinking owlishly, he looked up and saw an empty bucket. Whatever was inside it was probably all over him now. Patting his head, he felt something cold, yet fluffy. His immediate thought went to snow. But snow? In the middle of October? In San Fransokyo?

The sound of squeaking sneakers sounded behind him. Turning slowly, he saw the familiar mop of white hair skid to a stop besides him. Jack Frost looked at him excitedly, then in shock. "Shoot," he muttered. "That's not meant for you."

"Who was it supposed to be for?" Hiro muttered crossly, swiping at the ice on his sleeves. Upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn't snow, but shaved ice. _Without_ the sticky syrup, thank god.

"Sorry, that was for Aster," Jack sighed, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "That rude Aussie hates the cold."

"Well, I'm not particularly fond of it either, so thanks for the ice bath," Hiro replied sarcastically, shivering slightly. At this point, the slush had melted into freezing cold water, soaking him from head to toe. A rather cold wind also decided to start blowing, sending chills down his entire body.

Jack winced. "Sorry about that, freshie," he said apologetically. "Here, let's go to the student council room. It'll be warmer there and I'm sure there's bound to be some towels."

* * *

The two walked down the hall, Hiro's wet shoes squeaking on the clean ground. He felt sorry for the janitor that had cleaned the floors so well. He would have to clean up Hiro's muddy shoe prints that had sullied all his hard work.

"We're here," Jack announced cheerfully. He opened the door, motioning Hiro in. The shivering kid cautiously entered, relieved that it was considerably warmer in the room than it was in the empty halls. Just as he walked in, a colorful blur rushed past him, zipping over to Jack.

"Jack Overland Frost, where have you been! I've been trying to reach you for hours now! You were supposed to stop by during lunch, but when you didn't, I thought you got detention again, and when I asked Mr. Mim, he said you didn't, so I asked-"

"Tooth, calm down!" Jack shushed his hyperactive companion. "I went to go ask someone a question, that's all," he assured her.

"Oh," she breathed, noticeably deflating as she calmed her nerves. "Well… tell us next time," she said angrily, crossing her arms to emphasize her frustration.

"Yes, ma'am."

"And who's this?" She suddenly turned to focus on Hiro. He jumped, surprised by how fast she changed her attention. "New friend?"

This girl, to say the least, looked weird. She wore a colorful sweater with a matching skirt and had on a hair clip with the same colored feathers. A pair of gold earrings adorned her ears, and a complementary bracelet rested on her thing wrist. The way she moved reminded him of a ballerina, graceful and swift. That, or a hummingbird on steroids.

"This is the kid that found the dead lady yesterday," Jack introduced, moving past the two to the drawers, looking for towels. "Hiro, Tooth. Tooth, Hiro."

Tooth was leaning in, looking Hiro up and down. Hiro couldn't help but shrink back at her intensity. Before he knew it, he had sunk down on the couch in the room, Tooth still looming over him. "P-Pleasure," he stuttered shyly.

"Likewise," she replied shortly, still studying him closely. After a few seconds of scrutiny, she smiled largely and gave him a huge, bone-crushing hug. "It's not often Jack brings back a friend," she giggled happily. She didn't seem to care that Hiro was soaking wet.

"Tooth, you're suffocating him," Jack sighed, back with an arm full of towels. "And I just met him today," he snorted, handing Hiro the towels as Tooth finally let him go.

"Thanks," Hiro gasped, gratefully wrapping several around his soaked body. Tooth really didn't go easy on her hugs. He was pretty sure she would've broken his ribs if she squeezed any harder. She kinda reminded him of Honey Lemon, the same energy and hyper activeness.

"Sorry, you're just so cute!" she giggled. "And your little tooth gap is _adorable_!" Without warning, she pulled on his cheeks to open his mouth. "Your teeth are beautiful, too," she gasped, either ignoring or not hearing Hiro's muffled squawks of protest.

"Tooth, stop terrorizing the freshman," Jack chastised, swatting her hands away from Hiro's face. "Sorry about Tooth," Jack apologized to Hiro as she shot him dirty looks for ruining her fun. "Her parents are both dentists, and teeth are kinda her obsession."

"That's… cool," Hiro murmured as he rubbed his sore cheeks. She seemed nice enough. Just… weirder than he thought she was. "It's nice to have an interest in something unique." _Just please don't shove your hand into my mouth next time._

"Yeah, you should see her presents," Jack snorted. "Usually you get candy and toys, but no, she gives toothbrushes and floss."

"It's good for your teeth," she protested.

"But you don't give it to people as presents."

"Why not? I don't see why-"

"FROST!"

Hiro jumped, turning his head to look at the new person in the room. A tall, tan guy with a brown leather jacket coated with slush stormed into the room. Trailing behind him was an even taller man dressed in a thick red parka with black fur and a short boy wearing a gold coat. The short boy was making wild gestures while the taller boy in red only shrugged.

"Oh shoot," Jack muttered, jumping over the couch to hide. At Hiro's questioning gaze, he grinned and said, "You didn't think that was the only place I boobie trapped, did you?"

The tan boy looked around furiously, looking ready to murder. "Where is he?" he snarled angrily as Tooth tried to calm him down. "I'm gonna kill him!"

"Now, now, Aster, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation-"

"Don't get in my way, Tooth, where is that bloody show pony," the angry boy growled in a heavy Australian accent.

"Calm down, friend," the red parka clad boy said calmly in a thick Russian accent. "Maybe he went home."

"No way," the tan boy fumed. "There's no way that guy would just go home and miss out on seein' the outcome of his prank." His eyes shot to the couch and focused on said white haired boy. "FROST!"

"Hey, Bunny!" Jack said cheerfully, quickly moving out of the angry boy's reach. "How's it going?"

"I'm gonna kill you!"

"Now, now, that's not nice," Jack scolded, jumping over a desk to dodge him. The two boys that had followed him in were literally holding him back (the taller boy was holding both his shoulders while the short boy was clamped onto his leg.) "Mr. Mim always said, murder is not the answer."

"I swear to god, when I get my hands on you, Frost, I'm gonna-"

"Time for our meeting!" Tooth announced quickly. "North, help me move these tables, would you?"

Jack took that moment of distraction to jump down from the desk he was perched on and helped them move the chairs and desks around in a circle. The boy who had gotten pranked glared daggers at the snowy haired teen and muttered threats and curses under his breath as he dragged the chairs over.

As they worked, Tooth fluttered over to Hiro and announced, "This is Hiro, everyone. Jack brought him in."

Immediately all attention was focused on him again. Hiro gulped as he felt the heat of all their stares was burning into him.

Red parka boy grinned and grabbed Hiro's hand for a handshake (he was so large and strong Hiro was surprised his arm didn't fall off.) "Is nice to meet you!" he said heartily as he shook Hiro's hand. "My name is Nicholas St. North. Can call me North if you like."

"North is our student council president," Tooth explained when North finally let go of Hiro's (now throbbing) hand. "And that's Sanderman Mansnoozie," she introduced and pointed at the waving shorter boy with the gold coat. "He's our treasurer."

"Nice to meet you," Hiro said nicely, waving back at him. Instead of replying, he made several wild gestures and smiled.

"He's mute," Tooth explained. "He can only reply in sign language. And feel free to call him Sandy."

"Oh." Hiro blinked, then, trying to remember from what little sign language he knew (he was bored and read through some of Tadashi's medical journals), slowly signed, "Am I doing this right?"

Sandy beamed and applauded him enthusiastically. He signed something back, and from what Hiro could remember, it was something like "I can teach you more if you'd like." It was either that or "My cat lives under a roof in my head." Hiro nodded excitedly. He was always up for learning new things.

"And this is Aster," she giggled as she danced over to the boy that had fell victim to Jack's prank. He still looked furious and had his arms crossed angrily across his chest. Tooth handed him a towel, which he snatched out of her hands immediately. "E. Aster Bunnymund, our VP."

"Won't tell us what the E. stands for," Jack snickered quietly in the back.

"Zip it, Frost," the tan boy growled. "And nice ta meet cha," he nodded to Hiro. "Call me Aster."

"Or Bunny, it pisses him off."

"Jack Frost, if you don't shut your trap _right now_ I'm gonna-"

"We begin meeting now, yes?" North announced loudly. "You will join us?" he asked Hiro kindly.

As though right on cue, his phone buzzed. "Sorry, my brother's here," Hiro apologized, grabbing his still damp backpack.

"Maybe next time," North offered.

"Um… sure." Hiro didn't know why their president was asking him to sit in on a meeting when he wasn't even part of the student council, but he wouldn't mind coming back to visit them.

"I'll see you around, kid," Jack waved as Hiro walked to the door. "Sorry again about the whole ice thing."

Hiro shrugged. "I'm mostly dry already, so you're mostly forgiven," he said jokingly. His senior snorted, while the other person that had fallen victim to the prank just rolled his eyes.

"It was nice meeting you, Hiro!" Tooth gave him another huge hug. "Come visit whenever you'd like, okay? And you should really consider joining the student council while you're still a freshman."

"Maybe," Hiro managed to gasp while she literally squeezed the breath out of him. "I'll think about it," he promised when she let him go.

All the older kids waved goodbye as he left the room. Sandy promised to meet up with him soon to start the sign language lessons. Hiro couldn't wait.

* * *

"Wow, what'd you do, jump in the pool?"

"Shut up," Hiro grumbled, climbing into the seat of the family truck. "Let's just say I became an unfortunate collateral to a prank."

"Did you catch the guy?" Tadashi snorted, turning out of the high school.

"Yeah, he invited me to the student council room where I met the board and then was offered a spot."

Tadashi blinked in surprise, not sure if his younger brother was joking or not. "So, you made more friends then?"

Hiro hesitated. He wasn't sure what they were to him. Friends? Or acquaintances. He did only meet them all today. But they were all so nice to him, and even invited them into their circle. "I guess?" he finally replied unsurely. "I really don't know, to be honest."

"Sounds like you had an eventful day then," Tadashi chuckled. "That's cool that you made some new friends. They sound interesting."

"They're… unique," Hiro said. "How was your day?" he asked hurriedly, trying to change the topic.

Tadashi shrugged. "Tested out a new super laser," he said nonchalantly, trying not to smirk when he saw Hiro's eyes widen in awe out of the corner of his eye. "The gang wouldn't let me test it since my arm's still not healed, but they gave me first dibs when it gets better."

"You _have_ to take me when you test it," Hiro said immediately. The kid was practically bouncing in his seat. _And he calls me the nerd,_ Tadashi snorted in his head. "A super laser? What's it supposed to do?"

"It's supposed to reach rocks in outer space," Tadashi replied. "Wasabi's hoping to patent it to NASA."

"You. HAVE. To. Take. Me." Hiro emphasized each word, staring at his brother pleadingly. "Pleeeeaaasssseeeee?" he begged, extending the one word desperately.

"Hmm, I could always just take a video and show you after," Tadashi jokingly mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Or just webcam it to you…"

"You wouldn't dare," Hiro gasped. "Daaasssshhiiiiii."

"Fine, fine, I'll take you," Tadashi laughed.

"Yes!" Hiro punched his arms up at his victory. "This is gonna be awesome," he crowed, his minds already racing with the thought of the super laser and possible inventions.

* * *

Finishing his shower, he collapsed into bed, phone in hand. Remembering his earlier note to himself, he opened his messaging app and wrote: _Hey, Vanellope. You still alive?_

Only a few seconds passed when she replied: _hey weirdo, yeah I'm alive._

Hiro let out a relieved breath. _Good. I would hate to have to eat lunch alone._

 _Wow, is that all I am to you? A lunch buddy?_

 _Basically._ Hiro could see Vanellope do her fake offended gasp in his mind.

 _How rude_ , she replied. _I'll see you tomorrow nerd. Gotta finish homework._

 _Yeah, see you._ Hiro typed back. Putting his phone down, he closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, he was surrounded by darkness. _Great_ , he sighed. _I must've fallen asleep._

Walking around, he realized that something was wrong. Peniel was nowhere to be seen. He even called out her name, hoping she would do her usual magic trick and appear out of thin air. Nothing.

Shrugging, he turned around. If she wasn't gonna show up, then that meant no training. As soon as he turned around, he realized he was looking right at his worst nightmare.

Tomoe was standing behind him, glaring icy daggers at him.

His breath hitched in his throat. He couldn't breathe. Just the sight of her made him remember everything that had happened three years ago.

Tomoe leaned in and slowly wrapped her hands around his throat. His feet wouldn't listen to him. They refused to move. She squeezed, closing his airway. He gasped for breath, choking as his mouth gaped open, desperate for a fresh breath of air. Tomoe leaned over to his ear and hissed, "Get out."

His eyes snapped open and he lurched up. The shock of his dream made him lose the strong grip he had on his ability and every electronic in the room sparked, then fizzed out. He heard a surprised cry come from downstairs. No doubt from Tadashi, who had been downstairs working on some assignments. A few seconds later, the door creaked open and Tadashi poked his head in with a flashlight. "You okay, bud?" he whispered.

Hiro was sitting upright in bed, panting as though he had run five miles. He was drenched in sweat, and that little slip was already giving him a major headache. Squeezing his eyes shut, he mumbled, "Yeah, I'm fine, bad dream." He rubbed his temple, trying to will his headache away. It didn't work.

Tadashi crossed over to his side of the room and opened his drawers, digging around for some aspirin. "At least you didn't cause a blackout on the whole street this time," he said jokingly, handing his brother a pill and the bottle of water on the nightstand.

"Sorry," Hiro said sheepishly, gratefully accepting the medicine and water. "How bad this time?"

"Just our house, from what I can see," Tadashi reported. "I'll fix it tomorrow morning, so why don't you do back to sleep?"

"Yup," Hiro yawned, crawling under the sheets this time. "G'night, Dashi." It's been a while since he last said those two words…

"Sleep well, baby bro," Tadashi laughed quietly before leaving the room. _Now_ , he thought, _time to clean up the mess in the kitchen and call it a night._

* * *

"You have a visitor, Miss-"

"Yes, yes, that's very nice, send them in," Tomoe snapped at the nurse standing by the doorway. God, how she despised these slow worker women! They wouldn't be able to bring her anything even if it were resting right in front of them.

The door creaked open and a familiar face walked in. Tomoe raised a brow, not amused. "Come here to gloat?" she drawled, rolling onto her back and sprawling out on the large bed. "I'm a busy woman, you know."

"Is that so?" her visitor snickered. "I can see that. Busy collecting teddy bears all day?" he commented, nodding to the mountain of plushies resting around her.

She rolled back over, laying on her stomach and glared at her visitor. "What do you want?" she hissed. "This obviously isn't a social visit, so what reason could you possibly have to be here?"

"A proposition," Koetsu offered. "Give me some names and I'll get you out of here."

"Oh?" Tomoe raised an eyebrow. "And how will you do that?"

The man smirked. "Do we have a deal?" he asked, lifting a hand up.

* * *

 **Soooo... I brought in some pretty familiar characters, that might or might not show up again later *hehe...***

 **Hope you enjoyed this longer than average update!**

 **Review, comment, favorite, follow, all that jazz**


	9. Chapter 9: Careful

Chapter 9: Careful

"Did you hear? They found another body the other day…"

"Seriously? And the cops aren't doing anything?"

"Well, there's nothing they can really do unless they catch the guy…"

"I heard this lady's younger than the one that freshman found…"

"You think he'll start targeting kids soon?"

Dark whispers rustled through the school the next day. The usually loud hallway was dead silent, only a few hushed whispers going through the corridor. While Hiro and Vanellope walked down the hall for class, all they could hear were the gossips that passed between the students. Neither knew what was going on. After the power surge he had last night, he ended up not waking up for the rest of the night. Tadashi still didn't have the power up when he woke up, so whatever breaking news was broadcasted, Hiro didn't see. And Vanellope was out of her house early, since Ralph had to be at work so early.

"Do you know what happened," Hiro whispered to Vanellope as they both took their seats. Their teacher was busy passing back their quizzes from a few days ago. Hiro already knew he aced it, but Vanellope had already told him repeatedly that she was sure she had messed something up.

"Not sure," she whispered back, groaning under her breath at her grade. "I'm guessing they found another body, but other than that, I don't know." She sighed and rubbed her head nervously. "Hey, you think you can help me figure out these questions?"

"Here, take my quiz," Hiro handed her his answers. "Just write down the work or something."

"Wow, Einstein," Vanellope whistled, impressed. "Yet another 100%, huh?"

"Oh, shut up," Hiro grumbled. "You think you could find out why everyone's freaking out?"

"Sure, I'll ask around," Vanellope agreed absentmindedly as she wrote down Hiro's work. The teacher had said to talk with a partner, so they weren't exactly being disrupting. "Can you explain what you did for number 6?"

* * *

"Hey, what's the big deal? Why are all the roads closed?" Tadashi asked when he finally got to the lab. After taking Hiro to school, the usual road he used to go to SFIT was blocked. When he tried to go his other route, that way was also blocked. After going through the extremely traffic ridden freeway, he finally made it on campus, only to realize he had missed his first class. Deciding to just spend a day at the lab, he trudged through the puddles that came with the rainy day. The rain might've had something to do with the ungodly amount of traffic that morning…

"Not really sure," Gogo replied. She was, as always, tweaking something on her bike. Despite the calculations Tadashi had adjusted for her a few years ago, she still stubbornly tried to figure out the kinks in her bike. "Missed the morning news."

"Wasabi should know," Honey said through her facemask. She was dealing with possible toxic fumes with her chemical experiments today.

"Shouldn't he be here already?" Fred mumbled as he walked into the lab and jumped onto his armchair. "He's usually always here hours early."

"Maybe he had the same problem I did," Tadashi shrugged. "There was a crazy amount of traffic on the freeway today. All the main routes were closed."

"Still, text him," Honey insisted, looking up temporarily from her chemicals. "You never know what might've happened."

"Yeah, yeah," Tadashi sighed, pulling out his phone to message his friend. "Maybe he'll know what's going on and why all the roads are blocked…"

* * *

"Okay, here's what I got," Vanellope said secretively as they walked to their other class. "Apparently the cops found another woman's body a few blocks away from where you found your lady. And I guess everyone's scared cuz this lady was younger than the last woman, and since this sicko has a thing for adults and kids, they're afraid that he'll be targeting students next."

Hiro shrugged. "I guess," he replied. "That would explain why there are so many people absent today." In his first two classes, almost one fourth of his class was missing for both. "Guess parents are being careful too."

"Yeah, guess so," Vanellope shrugged back. "Almost half my class was missing in P.E. today. Miss Ariel was kinda upset… she was looking forward to swimming today…"

"You should've seen the look on Ms. Belle's face," Hiro snickered. "We had a quiz on _Romeo and Juliet_ in class and she almost threw a fit when she saw how many people were in class."

"Hey Wasabi, where are you?"

"Sorry, dude," Tadashi's friend sighed. "Mom wants me to stay at home and watch the little ones for the day, since the news this morning and everything…"

"Wait, what happened?" Tadashi asked. He didn't have time to figure out the power switches that morning and missed the morning news.

"You don't know?" Wasabi asked in surprise. "Cops found another body, man!"

"Seriously?" Tadashi gaped. This wasn't good. It had only been two weeks since Hiro found the poor woman on his way home from school. If this killer already killed again… that would mean nightmares for San Fransokyo. "Where?"

"Few blocks away from where the little guy found the other woman," Wasabi said fearfully. "City's doing a search of the area, but dad says they haven't found anything yet." Wasabi's father would know. He was one of the lead detectives in the SFPD.

"Well, keep me caught up, alright?" Tadashi sighed. There was honestly nothing he could do but try to keep himself and his little brother safe.

"Roger."

After a quick goodbye, Tadashi hung up and sighed again. He leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. There was so much going on… The problems with Hiro and his… abilities, and now this serial killer on the loose who seemed to be escalating… The mere thought made Tadashi's stomach churn.

Sighing one more time, he muttered a low "ow" to activate his robotics project. Baymax inflated, but before he could say his signature phrase, blinked and slumped down. Baymax had been having troubles with his battery life recently. Tadashi was trying everything he could think of, but he honestly didn't know what else to do.

Suddenly, his phone rang, breaking the silence. Jumping slightly at the sudden sound, he picked up with a monotone, "Hello, Tadashi Hamada speaking."

"Dashi?"

"Hiro?" Tadashi said back in shock. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Uhh… it's kinda a long story," his younger brother replied. "But the school decided to make it a minimum day since there were so little students here today."

"Oh," Tadashi replied, surprised. "How few is so little?"

Hiro hesitated, before replying, "It's a long story…"

"Got it," Tadashi chuckled. "So what time do you need to be picked up?"

"Umm… right now?"

Tadashi balked. He looked at the clock on his wall. 11:35. "Don't usual minimum days end at like, 1?" Tadashi asked incredulously.

"Like I said… long story," Hiro answered sheepishly.

Tadashi sighed and said, "Well, alright, little bro. Give me a few minutes, I'll be right there."

"'Kay!" Hiro said cheerfully. "Hey, can I hang out at the lab for the rest of the day?"

"Sure," Tadashi laughed. It was Friday anyways. "Any new project you wanna work on?"

"Maybe," Hiro said mysteriously. "Just a small thought that came to me in class the other day. I'll tell you more when you pick me up."

"Alright," Tadashi smiled. At least his little brother seemed happier than he was a few days ago. "See you in a bit."

"Bye!"

Tadashi hung up and grabbed his jacket and keys. Since he was coming back, he decided to leave his bag in his lab. Putting Baymax back in his case, he left his office, telling Honey that he was going out for a bit. Hopefully the traffic wouldn't be too bad…

* * *

Hiro put his phone in his pocket and stared out the window to the rainy skies. After the teachers announced that for "security reasons" (everyone knew what reasons they were talking about), class would be cancelled for the day and that they would give the students further notice for the next week. Many students left immediately after the principal made the announcement on the speakers, although a few students stayed behind (most likely because they were getting picked up). All the teachers allowed the students to stay in their classrooms to wait for their guardians to pick them up, seeing as it was raining heavily outside, and the fact that there was a serial killer running around.

Which was how Hiro found himself back in the student council's room.

Vanellope had to take the bus home, so she had to leave immediately. Several teachers escorted the students that needed to go to the bus stop to their destination. After all, it wasn't safe for children to walk around anymore, in groups or not…

Hiro relaxed on the couch in the room as Tooth argued with North about something (it sounded like she wanted to pass out sugar free candy in their next school rally, but North was against it because he knew no one would eat it), and Jack was tinkering with something in the corner.

"What's that?" Hiro asked curiously. He couldn't help himself. With the thought of going back to his brother's lab where he could get his hands on as much tech as he wanted made his mind go to robotics mode.

"Huh?" Jack looked up in surprise. "Oh, this is nothing. Just a little something I've been making…" It was a robot. Or, that's what Hiro thought it was. To be honest, it looked like a snowflake.

"What's it do?" Hiro asked curiously.

"Nothing much," Jack shrugged. It's supposed to be a weapon for my bot, but I can't figure out some of the kinks in it…"

"Can I see?" Hiro asked politely. Jack grinned and handed the robot over to the kid. Almost as though he were on autopilot, he twisted a few parts and pressed a few buttons, and the snowflake lit up and hummed softly.

"Whoa," Jack gasped in amazement. "That was amazing," he said, impressed. "You should come out and see a bot fight some time."

"Bot fight?" Tadashi forbade him from ever going to a bot fight. His brother told him that it was dangerous and illegal. "Aren't those illegal?"

A sly grin slipped across Jack's face. "Only if you get caught." Hiro still looked unsure. Jack laughed and said, "Don't worry about it kid. How about this… next time I go to a fight, I'll tell you. You can come if you want, just check out the game and see how it is. Sound good?"

At that very moment, Hiro's phone buzzed. Tadashi was here.

"Here, I'll walk you out," Jack offered. Saying his goodbyes to Tooth and North (Aster and Sandy were talking with Mr. Mim about their next school projects), the duo walked toward the school entrance.

"How often do you go to bot fights?" Hiro asked carefully. If he were to be completely honest, he had always wanted to go to a tournament, but Tadashi never let him.

Jack shrugged. "Not very often," he admitted. "Just occasionally, whenever I'm bored… or need cash."

"Isn't it dangerous though?" Hiro asked. "My brother told me all the fighters are sore losers… and they beat you up if you beat them."

"Yea, they're all babies," Jack laughed. "But don't worry, kid. You'll be with me, so I'll keep you safe. Trust me."

Hiro hummed in wonder. Ever since he found out about bot fighting, he was always dying to go see one. To see the crowd screaming and waving around wads on betting money, the sound of clashing metal as the two bots fought…

"But yeah, think about it, alright?" Jack said nonchalantly. "Not forcing you or anything, but it would be amazing if a robotics genius like you got to see what he was missing."

"… I'll think about it," Hiro agreed. Seeing the familiar vehicle through the rain, he bid farewell to his friend and made a run for the car door.

A small smile slid across his face as he ran. Just the thought of getting a free pass into bot fights made him too giddy to function.

* * *

Tadashi parked the truck and waited for his younger brother to come out. The rain was still pouring from the sky. He could understand why his brother chose to wait in a classroom.

A few minutes later, Hiro finally walked outside. Followed by a white haired boy.

Tadashi was a little surprised to see Hiro wave at the snowy haired youth before running towards the truck. Seems as though they were pretty good friends. His brother opened the door and climbed into the seat, soaked from his short run through the rain. "Hey, Dashi," he panted, swiping at the water futilely.

"Hey, baby brother," Tadashi said cheerfully, starting the engine on the truck. "Was that the friend you told me that was from the student council?"

"Yup," Hiro replied. "They let me stay in the room while I waited for you."

"That's nice of them," Tadashi laughed. "So why did school get cut short?"

"Uhh… apparently they found another body, pretty close to here," Hiro replied hesitantly. "Principal decided to cancel the rest of the day for security reasons."

"Ahh," Tadashi replied dryly. "Wasabi told me about that," he sighed. "The police haven't found anything yet, but they said to be on the lookout.

"Yea, the teachers walked the students that needed to go on the bus to the bus station too."

"Guess you can't be too careful," Tadashi sighed. Wanting to change the topic, he forced a smile and said, "So what's this project you want to work on?"

Hiro's eyes immediately lit up. "So, I was thinking about this in class, and remember when…"

Tadashi laughed as his brother went into great detail of how he thought of this idea. Of course, the realization that there was such a huge danger lurking around just outside the car was still terrifying to the older Hamada… But for now he would just focus on keeping his younger brother happy.

To make sure he could still live a normal childhood.

The kid deserved that much.

* * *

"So," Chiyeki growled, looking around at the rotting walls of an abandoned warehouse with disgust. "What the hell did you call me here for?"

"Don't be so rude," Koetsu scoffed. "After I practically raised you as my own after you left that academy-"

"You may have watched me, but you sure as hell didn't 'raise' me," the angry girl snapped back. "Besides, you were reporting back to my sister, I know it."

"You got me," Koetsu snickered. "But still, I feel like I owe you for the amount of torture we both endured while watching Tomoe."

Chiyeki raised a brow and crossed her arms. "Watching?" she repeated in disbelief. "Don't you mean, 'working for?'"

"Small details," Koetsu shrugged, waving his hand. "But do you want to hear my offer or not?"

"No," Chiyeki growled. "I'm done with doing all this evil shit. I just want to live a normal life and stay out of all this drama." Chiyeki looked at her former guardian in sympathy. "Koetsu… it wasn't their faults, you know. You need to stop this petty game of revenge."

"Shut up!" Koetsu roared. Chiyeki flinched. His yell echoed through the empty, dark space surrounding them. "It may not have been those brother's faults, but I sure as hell can't just forgive Hiruto for what he did to me."

"That was an accident!" Chiyeki sighed exasperatedly. "Can't you just let it go? That was years ago?"

"I'm not talking about the stupid scar!" Koetsu growled. "There's so much more, you can't possibly understand!"

"Oh yeah?" Chiyeki huffed. "Why don't you explain it to me, then?"

"I… can't," Koetsu sighed. "I've already told you too much. I can't-"

"It was you wasn't it," Chiyeki quickly blurted out. "You were the one that let out Ripper."

Koetsu frowned. "I made sure to clean my tracks, how'd you find out?"

"Because I know you." Chiyeki rubbed her head angrily. "Koetsu, you know what happened the last time we let Ripper out on the streets. Are you trying to start a war?"

"If that's what it takes, then yes," the man huffed. "I'll use whatever resources I can get."

"And those resources are an experimental, crazed killer and the scientists that created him," the girl scoffed. She shook her head in disbelief and sighed. "Well, whatever you do, just leave me out of it. I don't need to be involved in all this. I really don't need to."

"Oh, but dear sister," a chilling voice that froze her to the spot spoke from behind her. "Why not dip your feet into a bit of fun with me?"

Chiyeki whipped around in disbelief and horror. There, standing disdainfully behind her, was the woman that was supposed to be locked up in a white room for the rest of her life. He long hair flowing in the wind and draping down her tall frame, Tomoe smiled coldly at her half-sister.

"Hello, sister dear," Tomoe sneered. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

* * *

 **So here's kinda a short filler chapter haha ^^**

 **Sorry about not updating, a lot of stuff has been happening... TvT**

 **But, now that spring break has started, I can take this time to plan out how I want this story to go! Hopefully that'll mean faster updates, but if not please bear with me! ^^"**

 **Comments are much appreciated~**


End file.
